Florida goes after cardrooms’ designated-player games

Two Florida pari-mutuel cardrooms are in hot water with state gaming regulators for continuing to offer ‘designated player’ card games in violation of the settlement the state reached with the Seminole Tribe this summer.

On Monday, Florida media outlets reported that the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) had filed administrative complaints against Pensacola Greyhound Racing and the Sarasota Kennel Club for continuing to offer house-banked card games in their cardrooms.

The so-called ‘designated player’ games allow one player at a card table to serve as the bank, meaning the other players are ostensibly playing against this single player, although courts have ruled that the games are essentially house-banked games in all but name.

The settlement the Seminoles reached with the state in July called for regulators to take “aggressive enforcement action” against non-Seminole gaming venues offering house-banked games. The state’s willingness to act against infringing pari-mutuels offers a hint of the state’s unwillingness to see this settlement – which came after years of setbacks and legal fights – fall apart at the seams.