Jim Rosica
Gambling regulators plan to “update and clarify existing language” in the state’s rules on card games, according to an administrative notice posted Monday.
A “notice of development of rulemaking” was published in the Florida Administrative Register.
An all-day workshop will be held Jan. 4, at the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering’s North Broward Regional Service Center in Fort Lauderdale. The division, under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, regulates gambling in Florida.
“The preliminary text of the proposed rule development is not available,” the notice said.
The Division previously published proposed rules on “designated player” games offered at certain pari-mutuel facilities. The games have been the subject of past and ongoing lawsuits.
The contemplated changes say that the dealer position in such games must “rotate around the card table in a clockwise fashion on a hand-by-hand basis to provide each player desiring to be the designated player an equal opportunity to participate.”
Last month, a DBPR spokeswoman said updating the rules would “allow the Division to move beyond pending litigation.”
The games, similar to poker, were at the core of a recent lawsuit by the Seminole Tribe of Florida against the state.
The Tribe argued some designated player games played too much like banked card games, like blackjack, which the state had guaranteed that the Tribe could offer exclusively in Florida.
A federal judge agreed, and the Tribe and state officials later settled the case while it was appealed.
In banked card games, players bet against the “house,” or the casino, and not each other. In traditional poker, people play against each other for a pot of money. Designated player games are a hybrid, where the bank is supposed to revolve among the players.
Regulators had said some card rooms were flouting state law by allowing third-party companies to buy their way into designated player games, using a worker to act as a virtual bank that didn’t rotate.
As one administrative law judge later put it, that set-up amounts to a sham, in which “the designated player is a player in name only. The existing operation of the games does no more than establish a bank against which participants play.”
8 comments
MICHAEL LAFROSCIA
December 11, 2017 at 1:06 pm
The State can’t win here. They are totally misguided on how gambling works in regards to D/P games. It doesnt matter if you have a moving button or not.. the point is you have a single banker every single hand. A moving button does not take away that fact. Moving the banker from one seat to the next means absolutely nothing and doesnt over come the fact of a single banker.
MICHAEL LAFROSCIA
December 11, 2017 at 3:23 pm
The contemplated changes say that the dealer position in such games must “rotate around the card table in a clockwise fashion on a hand-by-hand basis to provide each player desiring to be the designated player an equal opportunity to participate.”
This doesnt work either because the house rake multiply’s when there are more than one banker on the table according to some of the racetracks house rules. This house rule keeps players from being the banker. This rule also gives the person who has the $30,000 to become the banker in the first place a safe haven from competitors who would want to share in the banker option.
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Don’t be scared state of Florida. One little lawsuit ain’t gonna hurt. Its gonna be like pulling a band-aid off a 37yr old festering wound. You let that puss ooze out of there and heal proper.
What I mean is – Do whats right. Decouple them racetracks – Run them tables like so and if county voters want slots… You give it to them. Its time to move forward. One foot in front of the other.
When you think of Floridian voters – Lets not be extremely careless, lets call it what it really is.. Grossly Negligent.
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 3:44 pm
Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don’t know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I’m like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say
Carry on my wayward son
For there’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 3:58 pm
You can’t even breathe gambling without the tribe threatening a lawsuit. So ride the hurricane and Ante Up.!! So what if the tribe brings another lawsuit – florida doesn’t need a compact that does nothing more than hog tie the florida constitution.
Slots today and Roulette tomorrow.. Medical Mary.Jane is now and later recreational pot. What direction are we really headed in.? Yesterday was oxy.80’s and that was a mistake. So here’s your chance to do whats right. No more wishlist’s – watch that Shia L. video and get motivated.
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 4:06 pm
Florida’s compact with the Seminole is like being with a dominatrix with no safe word. Do you like it.? Haven’t you had enough.? Do you even have a safe word.? This reaming is gonna go on till 2o3o.. was that what you had in mind.? Was that intentional.?
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 4:14 pm
I would’ve never guessed Florida was into S/M like that. Free the people.. at least.
eric keaton
December 13, 2017 at 4:19 pm
I hear ‘Sho.Naa.Bish’ is the Seminole word for Thank.You … You know they are laughing all the way to the bank. Hard Rock was rocking and rolling all during Hurricane Irma.. did you guys notice that… in Tampa and Hollywood.. Jesus.
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