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Slipping through a loophole, Mardi Gras Racetrack & Gaming has received state approval to operate a 24-hour poker room.

The first non-Indian poker room in Florida to go 24 hours opens July 1.

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Voters in Sumter County said a firm “no” to a quarter-horse track and poker room proposed by Green Bridge Co.

The company, based in Bettendorf, Iowa, is the same one that wants to build a quarter-horse track and poker room in DeBary.

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The largest poker tournament in Florida history comes to Broward County this weekend, a tribute to the games popularity and to the near monopoly power of the Seminole Tribes casino empire.

As many as 210 players will pay $3,000 apiece to enter the three-day event, which begins Friday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The entry fee and potential first prize of more than $125,000 — exact figures depend on the final player count — dwarfs what is allowed by state law at Browards racetrack casinos and is made possible by the recent gaming compact between the tribe and Gov. Charlie Crist.

Seminoles big-money poker tourney angers racetracks — – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

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ORANGE LAKE – More than 50 people – with no official public notice – were lined up for this week’s opening of the new card room at Ocala Poker & Jai Alai, newly renamed to add its new emphasis on poker.

Within an hour, 10 tables were full of eight to 10 players each. The players, almost all of them men of various ages, were considering their cards, watching other players’ faces, chatting about the game, bantering about past games, clicking poker chips together – on a weekday afternoon.

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Poker rooms could stay open later and dormant jai-alai frontons could become greyhound racetracks under two bills that won approval from a Senate committee Tuesday.

The poker bill paves the way for high-stakes and celebrity tournaments at parimutuels and would expand gaming to 18 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends. Current law allows card rooms to operate for no more than 12 hours a day.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, would allow parimutuels to host and broadcast celebrity or charity poker tournaments like the ones that have become television mainstays in recent years.

They also could have high-stakes tournaments in which up to 1,000 players each pay up to $10,000 in entry fees.

ILLEGAL IN FLORIDA

“You have tournaments that are spread across the world, in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but currently those tournaments are illegal in Florida,” said Geller, a Hallandale Beach Democrat. “We think this is a great way of generating free publicity for the state.”

The high-stakes tournaments would be allowed twice a year, and the charity or celebrity tournaments would be allowed six times a year under Geller’s bill.

The legislation requires parimutuel facilities to give at least 70 percent of proceeds from the celebrity events to qualified charities.

Geller attempted to pass similar legislation about expanding card room hours last year, but he said the measure failed in the House.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted 8-2 in favor of the bill, which now faces two more committees.

A House companion measure has not yet been heard by any panels in that chamber.

A separate bill sponsored by state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat, won 10-0 approval from the Regulated Industries Committee on Tuesday.

Aronberg’s bill would allow some jai-alai frontons to convert their parimutuel permits to greyhound racing, so long as the facilities have not hosted any jai-alai games within 10 years.

There are other criteria jai-alai facilities must meet in order to be considered for the dog-racing permit, including having no more than two parimutuels in the county.

As a result, the only facilities that would be eligible are Palm Beach Jai-Alai, Volusia Jai-Alai and Tampa Jai-Alai.

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Four people have been taken into custody on illegal gambling charges, stemming from a police raid at a Drew Street residence on Jan. 16 at 12:30 a.m.

Sascha N. Kauper, 33, of Palm Harbor was charged with two counts of keeping a gambling house. Robert Nicola Gill, 26, of Tampa was charged with two counts of being an employee of a gambling house and Chastity Ann Baur, 30, of Tampa was charged with one count of being an employee of a gambling house.
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