As reported by: The Miami Herald
In a major victory Tuesday for the state's struggling parimutuels industry, Florida's self-described anti-gambling governor, Jeb Bush, gave tacit approval to allow bigger payouts for poker players at jai-alai frontons, harness and dog tracks.

The new law also will, for the first time, allow thoroughbred tracks to offer both poker and off-track betting as it runs live races. Previously, state law prohibited thoroughbred tracks -- though not dog tracks -- from operating card rooms and betting on simulcast races at the same time.

The law, which went into effect after Tuesday at midnight without Bush's signature, expands the hours that card rooms can operate on live race days and abolishes the long-standing $10 pot limit the state had set on poker games.

It also includes a per-bet limit of $2, with a maximum of three raises per round. State analysts have estimated that would allow a pot as high as $200 if seven people are playing a game of seven-card stud.

"This will allow people to actually play a game of poker," said Daniel Adkins, vice president of Hollywood Greyhound Track.

Poker players hailed the change, joining gaming operators, who saw Bush veto a similar bill 15 months ago.

"This makes the game worth playing," said Jo-Ann Hall, an estate liquidator and poker player, who said she may forgo at-home games with friends for a table at Hollywood Greyhound now that the limit has been lifted. ''It's starting to compare to Vegas or Atlantic City."

But the decision marks a sharp departure for Bush, who has vehemently opposed efforts to expand gambling in Florida since he was a gubernatorial candidate -- from campaigning against casino-legalization to the Senate's unsuccessful push this year to allow video slot machines at existing parimutuels.

As late as Tuesday afternoon, confidants of the governor said he was still struggling with whether to approve the bill or veto it, as he did a slightly more ambitious card-room bill last year, or simply allow it to become law without his signature. And parimutuels lobbyists said they were not at all sure whether it would become law.

The measure Bush vetoed last year would have allowed card rooms to operate anytime parimutuels were offering off-track betting.

The new law, while expanding card rooms' hours, will still restrict card room operations to those days when live races are being run.

"While I strongly believe that gambling should not be used as a generator of new revenue or promoted as value-neutral public policy, recommended changes to last year's legislation were made to make this bill acceptable," Bush wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Glenda Hood.

Bill sponsor Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said he believes the governor ''accepted this was something that the Legislature wanted. . . . It's becoming more and more evident the state needs more revenue. We're saying additional revenue from limited gaming in limited venues is a good thing for Florida."

For years, parimutuels have said the $10 pot limit for card rooms has crippled their chances at warding off competition from Indian reservations and off-shore floating casinos.

During the same time, parimutuels' poker trade has declined by at least half, according to state tax records, and has prompted some gaming operations to get out of the business altogether. Five facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have permits for poker: greyhound tracks in Hollywood and Miami, the Pompano Beach harness track and jai-alai frontons in Dania Beach and Miami.