Florida ups the poker ante

Unless Florida governor Crist vetos it (an extremely unlikely occurrence) Florida poker players will be able to up their bets from July 1 following passage of a bill through the Florida House and Senate that raises the maximum betting limits in the state.

While poker has been legal in Florida, the maximum betting limit had been set at $2, with a maximum of three raises in any betting round. The pending law has raised the betting limit to $5.

The new law also allows no-limit Texas Hold'em, providing the required buy-in is no more than $100. A provision for tournament poker is expressly defined, allowing buy-ins (including rebuys) not to exceed ten times what a participant could potentially wager in one hand on non-tournament poker.

Legislators considered expanding cardroom hours to 24 a day, but the operational hours were ultimately left at 12 hours per day. However, the new law no longer specifies the hours of operation, originally set at noon to midnight. It also allows pari-mutuel cardrooms to operate on any day; previously pari-mutuel cardrooms could only operate when wagering was opened for pari-mutuel events. Predictably, licensing fees for cardrooms were also increased.