Florida House Pari-Mutuel Plan Could Stimulate High Stakes Poker Games
Posted by: admin : Category: poker news
Fri, Apr 10th, 2009 @ 12:00am
Florida's House of Representatives just released their pari-mutuel plan, with provisions that could stimulate high-stakes poker games in Florida. Highlights include extending the maximum hours for poker rooms from 12 hours to 24 hours a day, and raising the limits of poker wagers tenfold, from $5 to $50 on standard games and $100 to $1,000 on Texas Hold'em games. "By raising the poker limits, you're going to allow the state to finally compete for some of the world poker tour events, that right now can't even consider Florida because of the restraints," said Dan Adkins, who runs Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach. "I think it's big. You're going to attract a different breed of player."The House rolled out the new poker rules as part of legislative talks to retool Gov. Charlie Crist's 2007 Indian gambling deal with the Seminoles, which gave the tribe blackjack and, critics say, an unfair advantage. The new Houes plan proposes to curb Seminole gambling by shutting down blackjack tables and limiting tribal gaming to slots, and offers a very different version than that of the Senate. Some highlights of the House pari-mutuel portion of the package relating to poker, according to a draft copy obtained by the Sun Sentinel, includes:* The maximum hours for poker rooms is extended from 12 hours to 24 hours a day.* The poker wage limit is increased tenfold, from $5 to $50 on standard games and $100 to $1,000 on Texas hold'em games.* A provision to allow quarter-horse racetracks to convert to hold more lucrative thoroughbred races and install poker rooms. The facilities would be required to hold 40 lives races per year, so they can't just set up a shell track to get card rooms.* No new games, which means no blackjack at racetracks in South Florida. The House's Seminole gambling plan, approved in a committee vote last week, calls for blackjack tables at tribal resorts (including Hard Rock in Hollywood) to be shut down within 90 days of a new agreement being executed.Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who chairs the House Seminole gambling panel, met with pari-mutuel lobbyists and owners Thursday morning in Tallahassee, and said the House put a lot of thought into this plan and there's not a lot of negotiating room.Another major aspect of the House plan is:* For the seven pari-mutuel facilities in Broward and Dade counties with voter-approved slot machines, the slots tax rate would be cut from 50 percent to 36 percent. The House used that rate because it is double the revenue share percentage from slots profits at Seminole resorts.But there's a catch: The pari-mutuels must deliver $140 million in revenues from the state to get the 36 percent rate. Currently, the 50 percent rate is generating about $133 million in revenues, so the pari-mutuels would have to expand or attract more customers to get the lower levy."With that floor, we're not reducing revenues to the state of Florida, but instead laying out the challenge to the pari-mutuels to come through on what they have testified to in the committee," said Galvano. "If they want to enjoy the benefits of a lower rate, it's not going to happen overnight. They're going to have to invest."SENATE'S VERSIONThe Senate is advancing a far different vision: full casinos at Seminole resorts (including craps and roulette), blackjack at South Florida racetracks and jai alai frontons and bingo-slots across the state. That version would generate big revenue for the state, $568m in year one, but is a major gambling expansion."This idea that we came forward with today, with the ($140 million) floor and the lower rate, are not things we just threw out there to posture with" Galvano said. "There's not a whole lot of room on the House side. Members get very concerned when we started dealing with this issue in general - - and we're not even talking about expanding gaming.""This process is about compromise, but the House will never support a full-on expansion" Galvano said.