Miami Casinos: How to Gamble Online & In-Person in Miami, Florida

Imagine the sparkling avenues of Miami Beach dotted with casinos. It would truly heighten the entertainment experience of the Magic City. But despite South Florida’s passionate efforts, the gambling laws are not up to that level in 2024. The Sunshine State has a very complex relationship with gambling.

This is why many Miami players turn to offshore sportsbooks for their gambling needs. Our guide is ready to go over the best online betting sites, as well as some of the land-based options you can still visit to play your favorite casino games as well.

Land-Based Miami Casinos

In addition to one popular casino in Miami, you can find quality poker rooms and racetracks that allow multiple kinds of wagering depending on what kind of betting action you’re looking for. We have collected a list for you of the best places to visit and you can explore all of the key casino information below:

Calder Casino (Miami Gardens, FL)

Calder Casino is a popular casino located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The casino floor boasts over 1,100 slot machines, including Vegas-style slot machines, video slots and progressive jackpot slots. In addition, guests can enjoy a variety of table games such as blackjack, baccarat and poker. Calder Casino also features a high-limit gaming area for those seeking a more exclusive and upscale experience.

The casino is open 24/7 and offers a Players Club loyalty program that rewards guests with special perks, such as free play and dining discounts. The casino also hosts regular promotions and events, including slot and table game tournaments.

Casino Miami

Casino Miami is a vibrant casino located in Miami, Florida. The casino floor features over 1,000 slot machines, including classic and video slots, as well as electronic table games like blackjack and roulette. Guests can also enjoy live table games such as baccarat, pai gow poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

Located just minutes from the Miami International Airport, Casino Miami is a convenient and exciting destination for both locals and tourists looking for a thrilling gaming experience in the heart of Miami.

Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino

Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino is a premier entertainment destination located in Hallandale Beach, Florida, just a short drive from Miami. The casino floor spans 110,000 square feet and offers a wide range of gaming options, including over 700 slot machines and 20 live-action poker tables. Players can also try their luck at table games like blackjack, baccarat, roulette and craps. The casino is open 24/7, so guests can enjoy the thrill of gaming any time of day or night.

In addition to gaming, Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino also offers world-class horse racing, dining and shopping experiences. Guests can watch live thoroughbred horse races from December through September or catch simulcast races from around the country year-round.

Hialeah Park Racing and Casino

Hialeah Park Racing & Casino is a historic casino located in Hialeah, Florida, just northwest of Miami. The casino is part of a larger entertainment complex that includes a horse racing track, gardens and a historic mansion.

The casino floor space spans over 90,000 square feet and features over 800 slot machines, including classic and video slots, as well as electronic table games like video blackjack, video poker games and roulette. Guests can also enjoy live casino gaming tables for games such as baccarat, three-card poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

Magic City Casino

Magic City Casino is a popular casino located in Miami, Florida. The casino floor features over 800 slot machines, including classic and video slots, as well as electronic table games like blackjack and roulette. Guests can also enjoy live table games such as baccarat, pai gow poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

The casino is open 24/7 and hosts regular promotions and events, including slot and table game tournaments.

Miccosukee Resort & Gaming in Miami

While the Seminole Tribe owns six Hard Rock casinos in Florida, Miami residents would have to travel north a little to visit the closest Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The seventh tribal casino in the state is the only one belonging to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and it’s called the Miccosukee Casino & Resort in Miami.

The Miccosukee Casino & Resort celebrated its 32nd anniversary in 2022. Visitors can play on over 2,000 slot machines and even enjoy a nice game of bingo. There is also a poker room that is currently closed. Travel to the casino is a bit of a hike as it is well west of Miami Beach, but it is the top casino in Miami for playing casino slots and getting a big casino experience.

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek is a premier casino located in Coconut Creek, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale and about an hour from Miami. This casino is one of South Florida’s most popular casinos. The casino floor features over 2,000 slot machines, including classic and video slots, as well as electronic table games like blackjack and roulette. Guests can also enjoy all of their favorite games, including live table games such as baccarat, three-card poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em in addition to other card game options.

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek is part of the larger Seminole Casino chain of casino properties, which are known for their luxurious amenities and high-end gaming experiences in the casino scene.

The Casino at Dania Beach

The Casino at Dania Beach is a popular casino located in Dania Beach, Florida, just a short drive from Miami. The casino floor features over 900 slot machines, including classic and video slots, as well as electronic table games like blackjack and roulette. Guests of this casino can also enjoy live table games such as baccarat, three card poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

The casino also features a bunch of entertainment options, including music and comedy shows in addition to regular poker tournaments.

The Best Online Casinos in Miami

With so many options to choose from in South Florida, finding the best online casinos in The Magic City can be difficult. Fortunately, we have analyzed many options and narrowed it down to a top 10 list based on the criteria we like to value these casinos by.

1. Bovada – America’s busiest online poker room
2. BetOnline – Some of the fastest payouts in Miami
3. Bookmaker.eu – Same-day Bitcoin payouts
4. Heritage Sports – Top customer service
5. Everygame – Superior site design ideal for stylish Miami
6. BetUS – Best for blackjack enthusiasts
7. BetAnySports – Play the lottery from home
8. WagerWeb – Over 200 casino games
9. JustBet – High rollers welcomed
10. SportsBetting – Variety of promos for Miami players 

Best Online Casino Sites in Miami List Reviewed

In our rating guides, we strive to provide the most comprehensive and informational data to provide a great experience for all bettors. If you need help selecting the best online casino for you in Miami, then you will be pleased to know that we have reviewed our top five options from our top 10 list, with fun games, secure payouts and plenty of other gambling options.

1. Bovada: America’s Busiest Online Poker Room

Bovada’s online casino has more than 130 slot games, seven types of blackjack, online roulette and live dealer games. It also serves as a popular online sportsbook that is very newbie-friendly to American users looking for their first offshore experience, thanks to its simple website design.

Bovada offers unique prop options and its very own prop builder, as well as many betting markets, including horse racing and lottery games. Bovada also has a wide variety of payment options, excellent customer service and a busy online poker room to go along with the robust sports betting choices.

For casino lovers and crypto fans, the Bovada promo code will allow them to take advantage of a welcome bonus that is a 125% crypto match bonus up to $1,250 to play casino games. After that first deposit bonus, users can get reload bonuses up to $1,250 on their second and third deposits as well, totaling $3,750 in bonus money from three crypto deposits. The first deposit comes with a 25x rollover requirement before you can withdraw it as real money and 50x rollover for the second and third bonuses.

Bovada is an excellent choice for both newbies and professional gamblers with plenty of experience.

2. BetOnline: Incredible Video Slots Selection

BetOnline is one of Costa Rica’s finest A+ rated online casinos. If you love playing video slots, you will be pleased to know that there are many that are exclusive to the BetOnline Casino, which has some of the best designs in the market.

Those interested in a sportsbook will appreciate the opinionated lines that BetOnline offers for football, baseball and basketball. These are lines that won’t be available anywhere else, so exclusivity is a strong point in what BetOnline offers over the competition.

You also can count on large limits of up to $10,000 on live tables. Horse-racing enthusiasts will also find a quality racebook. BetOnline also has markets for esports betting and you can enter contests with sweet cash rewards such as a $10,000 NFL Survivor contest.

There are plenty of BetOnline promo codes ranging from 50% sports welcome bonus, 100% first crypto deposit bonus, 100% casino welcome bonus, 100% poker welcome bonus as well as reload bonuses.

3. BookMaker: Fair for Bettors of All Experience Levels

If you want a reputable site with a long history of serving customers well, look no further than BookMaker. Operating since 1996 out of Costa Rica, BookMaker is an A+ rated sportsbook with a record of putting out the earliest lines in the market, leading to their slogan “where the line originates.” This makes BookMaker a favorite sportsbook among sharp bettors, but it is also a site that is good for new users in Jacksonville with one of the best loyalty programs around for returning customers.

BookMaker does not have the widest selection of casino games, but it does offer demo versions, allowing you to try games for free. The common games — blackjack, roulette, video slots — are all available as well.

Crypto users can get nice welcome bonuses with BookMaker. You can receive a 20% cash bonus of up to $500 on your first crypto deposit. Any other deposit method gets a 25% cash bonus up to $500. These bonuses carry a 10x rollover requirement that must be satisfied before you can cash out any winnings.

4. Heritage Sports: Reduced Juice for Your Sports Betting

The Costa Rica-based Heritage Sports was formerly a VIP-only service that required an invitation to join. After much demand, those days are over as anyone can now sign up for an account and start playing at their casino today.

At Heritage Sports, you get a quality sportsbook with reduced juice (-108) lines, the ability to live bet, e-sports to wager on, a solid racebook and many casino games to try.

Heritage Sports is also home to some of the cooler promotions in the market. Users can get a free birthday parlay (maximum value of $500) and your every eighth deposit is on the house. Heritage Sports will simply calculate the average of your previous seven deposits and that is how much you get for free on an eighth.

5. Everygame: Excellent Mobile Site 

The Antigua-based Everygame was known as “Intertops” for many years until changing its name to celebrate its 25th birthday. The rebranding was a good choice as this really is a site with Everygame. Do you want to bet on handball, snooker and table tennis? You can do it at Everygame, in addition to the well-established markets such as American football, basketball and baseball.

If you want to bet on esports or politics, then that’s available too. You also get to see one of the best-looking sites on the market with sharp colors and fonts lending themselves well to an easy-to-navigate mobile site. You can also make live bets, play poker and the casino is stacked with more than 300 slots. If keno and scratchcard games are more your speed, they are available too, as well as a nice touch of free demo versions of games.

Bitcoin is an accepted form of deposit for a sign-up bonus worth up to $750 over a user’s first three deposits. You can also get four free $100 NFL bets, though you must wager $1,500 during a quarter of the season to qualify. There are a variety of promo codes at Everygame that can be used to gain additional benefits and bonus funds as well.

Gambling Laws in Miami – Is gambling legal in Miami?

Miami is located in Miami-Dade County, but like the rest of the state, its gambling is regulated by the Florida Gaming Control Commission. Unfortunately, there is no clear “yes” or “no” answer to the question of whether gambling is legal in Florida. The best answer is that it’s complicated and often lacks logical consistency.

If you wanted to place a legal bet on the Miami Dolphins to make the playoffs this year, you were out of luck. Oh, but you can bet on a horse race, either online or in person. That is always legal. You can buy a lottery ticket at a store, but you can’t buy one online legally. You can go to tribal casinos and play slot machines, but you cannot play one in an adult arcade. You also cannot join a state-regulated app and play online slots because no such thing exists as of 2024. You can play poker with friends with small pots, but you cannot play online poker for real money. As you can see, gambling options are complicated in Florida.

Just a small number of forms of gambling are legal in Florida. But you have many options to gamble online with an offshore casino. This is why it is important to learn about the differences between legal, regulated gambling and offshore gambling that is simply tolerated in Florida.

Is online gambling in Miami legal?

Only certain types of online gambling are legal in Miami, including horse racing, free poker and daily fantasy sports (DFS) at sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings.

Isn’t it strange how you can gamble on the FanDuel app for DFS, but you cannot wager on the FanDuel Sportsbook? That is where things are in Miami at the moment and that is why players are turning towards online casinos at offshore sites, which are not held to the laws in Florida.

History of Casino Gambling in Miami

Below you can see the key historical events related to casino gambling in Miami, Florida:

• 2012: Genting, a Malaysian casino operator, proposes a $3.8 billion casino resort on the site of the former Miami Herald building in downtown Miami. The proposal is met with significant opposition from community leaders and local politicians and ultimately fails to gain approval.
• 2011: State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff proposes a bill that would allow three destination resort casinos to be built in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The bill fails to gain traction and is not passed.
• 2005: The Miami-Dade County Commission approves a resolution supporting the development of a casino resort on the site of the Miami Herald building. The proposal ultimately fails to gain approval.
• 1994: Governor Lawton Chiles negotiates a compact with the Seminole Tribe that would allow them to operate bingo games on their reservations. The compact is challenged in court and ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996.

The Future of Online Casinos in Miami

It honestly is mind-blowing that in 2022, a desert area in Nevada and anywhere in New Jersey is still considered the go-to destination for casinos in the United States. A spot like Miami with its nightlife and ocean views would be perfect for a booming casino industry that would draw in even more tourists to what is already America’s No. 2 tourist state behind New York.

Alas, Miami is not the Las Vegas of the southeast when it comes to casino offerings. But if the online casino market is ever going to boom in Miami, Florida has to get its act together in the courts.

In 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis struck a gambling deal with the Seminole Tribe that would legalize gambling in the state and inject billions of dollars into the economy. They even started taking live bets online in November, but a federal judge struck down the compact, which quickly led to that sportsbook being shut down. The Seminoles successfully pushed through the appeals process, making in-person betting legal as of December 2023.

Some experts even believe it can take until 2026 for Florida to offer fully legalized gambling online. Until it happens, you must know offshore sites are your best option and they are not regulated by Florida laws. They are within your right to use and enjoy as a Miami resident.

Sports Betting in Miami

The Miami Dolphins play their home games in Hard Rock Stadium, which has naming rights owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The stadium is just 10 miles from one of the Seminole Hard Rock casinos. That’s right, the group behind the gambling compact with Governor DeSantis has their name on the football stadium in Miami and they had the Hard Rock sportsbook operating in late 2021 for three weeks to take bets on sports.

Yet, the state had some issues keeping this service running. As of December 2023, retail sports betting is the only option. Now residents must wait to see what the future holds for online gaming. This could go well into 2024 before any further developments. As of now, offshore sites are your best option if you want to play casino games or bet online in Florida. Just sign up at sites like Bovada, BetOnline, BookMaker, Heritage Sports and Everygame and start having fun today.

How do I stay safe playing casino games online in Miami?

It is always good to follow some tips to stay safe while you play casino games online in Miami:

• Before joining a site, read up on reviews of it at sites like Bookmakers Review to ensure that it is highly rated and reliable.
• Research if there are any bad reviews by customers of the site on forums such as Reddit.
• When making a password for your account, use special characters and numbers to make it strong.
• Do not log on to your account when using a public computer or device.
• Bet responsibly within your limits or budget.

FAQs – Online Casinos in Miami