The state government may be objecting and the game may not be exactly the same, but Florida card rooms are among those who can attest that people love playing 3-card poker.
Fifteen Florida card rooms offer the game, a version of poker that gives patrons the chance to hit big money quickly. Revenue figures are vague, but some experts credit 3-card poker and related games for a 10 percent increase in Florida poker business compared to last year.
Because the Seminole Tribe of Florida has exclusive rights to table games in Florida (games such as blackjack and baccarat), lawyers for the greyhound track and card room in Naples tried getting slightly different versions of 3-card poker, pai-gow, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘em, and Casino War classified as poker. The Naples racino version of the games utilizes a person as a “designated player.” That (arguably) makes the game a type of poker (player vs. player) rather than a house-banked card game, which is what Las Vegas, the Florida Seminole Tribe, and others offer.
Naples first offered the games in January 2015. Magic City Casino in Miami, which has the same owners, started a couple of months later. The games are played in pits of about six tables, stationed in the poker rooms; at traditional casinos, the game is played in blackjack pits.
As is the case with what seems like every gambling endeavor in Florida, this one has a legal history. Racetrack casino officials received approval from the state’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering in 2014. Then, as the Seminoles and the state tried negotiating a new compact in the fall of 2015, the tribe asked for the games to stop. The state issued an administrative order that complied with the tribe’s wishes, but 3-card poker and the other games have continued in many locations, pending a July 2016 hearing. The parent company of the Isle Casino in Pompano Beach told the casino to pull its games, and Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach also ceased, citing a desire for a spirit of cooperation with the state in light of many other gambling issues being negotiated. The tribe itself, still lacking an agreement for blackjack, could eventually offer to drop its challenge as a bargaining chip.
But right now, to the everyday gambler, not much of that matters. The house-banked games also draw more female players – poker games such as Texas Hold ‘em are about 90 percent male because they are less intimidating and more social.
The games can also attract players looking for quick money. Players hitting a mini-royal flush in 3-card poker are paid 200-to-1 on their bets, for example, while those playing Texas Hold ‘em are usually happy if they double their investment.
Those features are what has made 3-card poker one of the faster-growing games in Las Vegas casinos, too. But in Florida, culturally and physically far away from the land of such casino gambling options, players like their version of 3-card poker just fine.
