Florida Debates Possibility of High Stakes PokerCurrent Laws Restrict Maximum Buy-in to $100 |
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With just weeks remaining in the state’s legislative session, the Florida Senate has been pushing hard to expand gaming laws in an effort to generate additional revenue. With a $3 billion budget deficit in the state, some Florida legislators believe that a relaxation on the Sunshine State’s gambling laws could produce a wealth of new revenue that could be used for education.
Although estimates vary widely because it is impossible to determine just how popular gaming would become in the state if Florida changes its gambling laws, economists believe a new bill proposed in the Senate could bring in anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion in additional state revenue. In 2007, the state’s Indian casinos generated $1.6 billion in revenue, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Poker, specifically, could see a major transformation if these talks result in new laws. Currently, the maximum buy-in for all no-limit hold'em cash games in the state is just $100, and the maximum bet in any limit game is restricted to $5. Tournament buy-ins can be in the hundreds of dollars, but not much beyond that. The Senate bill would remove these caps to allow for high-stakes action.
Poker is just one small part of the Senate’s new plan on gaming. The chamber also wants to allow the Seminole tribe to offer a host of other games, including roulette and craps, to generate additional state revenue. The Seminole tribe is the largest of any Florida tribe authorized to conduct gaming, operating seven casinos in the state.
The Florida House, however, wants no part of the Senate bill. While both chambers in the state are Republican-led, the House has a different plan when it comes to gaming.
“There is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, that the Senate bill will pass [in the House],” Democratic State Senator Steve Geller told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel earlier this month.
Although the more conservative House has been hesitant in the past to expand gaming in any form, the chamber has produced its own gaming bill which would also represent progress in the state’s poker laws, albeit much milder in scope. In the House bill, the maximum buy-in for no-limit hold'em cash games would be raised from $100 to $1,000, and the maximum limit bet would be raised from $5 to $50.
The poker discrepancies in the two versions of the bill, while not insignificant, are not the major stumbling blocks when it comes to forming a compromise on gaming legislation. At the heart of the issue is the state’s 2007 gambling deal with the Seminoles, which gave the tribe the ability to offer blackjack.
While the Senate’s current bill wants to further expand gaming in the Seminole casinos for a price — reportedly an additional $400 million a year — the House bill instead looks to reduce the tax rates for local horse tracks and casinos while expanding the hours of poker rooms there from 12 hours a day to 24 hours a day. Currently, only Seminole poker rooms are allowed to be open 24 hours a day.
The House plan would raise much less for education — between $140 million and $260 million — as opposed to the Senate bill, which also includes an expansion of gaming for the tracks.
This would not be the first time that poker laws were adjusted in Florida. The current $100 max buy-in for no-limit games was established in 2007. This came after 2003 legislation, which allowed a maximum bet of $2 per betting round, replacing a 1996 law that allowed poker in Florida, provided the pot didn’t exceed a $10 max.
The current legislative session ends within three weeks.
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