I am starting a campaign to change Florida law to raise the wagering cap for legal home poker games, and can use help from other Florida players.

Currently, the law reads:

which I want to get changed to:

The first step is finding a Florida congressional member who will introduce the legislation. I have written to my Representative and my Senator (see below) to request their involvement. Anyone who wants to get involved, please write something similar to your representatives to ask them to introduce legislation this congressional session. Find your representative (click the tab at left to Find Your Representative). Please post here or PM with a copy of your letter. You can write to both your FL Representative and your Senator as well.

The main points to push are:

1. The current statute is outdated and makes almost all social home poker games illegal.

2. There is currently no clear legal distinction for Florida poker players to judge at what stakes they should limit their home game and at what stakes they are required to attend a licensed cardroom instead.

3. The current outdated law makes it difficult for law enforcement to distinguish between a harmless social game and a commercial underground game.

Once we find a representative to introduce the legislation, we can start lobbying for it.

Good luck!

the term penny ante game should probably be changed to low stakes non-raked game or something similar to reflect that it's lower stakes than what casino's in the state offer and that no social game can collect a rake or fee to spread the game.

at 100$ buyins it probably won't be considered penny ante by the average rep or senator.

personally i'd rather see the betting limit strickened from the verbage all together and only reflect that a game host can not collect a rake or fee. atleast then in the event of a legal debate the amount of money in play won't be a deciding factor on if you are breaking an arbitrary law where for one person or group of people $100 represents a lot of money and to another person or group it represents very little.

A high stakes UNraked game is illegal in Florida?

Almost positive this is not the case in Louissianna , what about other states ?

Nice effort. If you need any help from the advocacy group I'm creating just PM me.

I went with a minimal verbiage change approach from the current statute. I think it will be much easier to get that accepted than a major overhaul. The current law does cover no rake or fee later on in the provision. You can read the whole thing here:
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Florida/

Once I find a sponsor for the bill, we can discuss the best approach, i.e. whether to do just a cap increase or remove the cap, etc. I think removing the cap is not an option - the licensed cardrooms would never allow such to pass.

One of the other provisions of the current statute I'd like to change is the prohibition against any sort of advertising of the game. This provision is just too broad as who is to say what is or what is not advertising. If I e-mail my friends or post on a forum that I will be holding a home game next Saturday, is that advertising and therefore illegal? But I'll wait to bring that up once a sponsor is found.

Specifically, I'd like to change this:
to:

Social gambling (including unraked poker) is not prohibited by LA law as long as it is not conducted in public. It is illegal in many other states:
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Law-Summary/

I think just making it clear that the old laws are just that old and archaic(as well as unclear and illogical).... And that Other states have adjusted them by banning raked games and allowing social games of any kind would be the best strategy

I like this.

Maybe. Once I get a sponsor for the legislation I'll discuss with them the best strategy, as they will probably know more about that for my state legislature than me. The first step is still to find a sponsor. Anyone else interested in writing to their FL representatives to help find one?

Glad your doing it, but have to ask

Why?

U want to run a home game ?

I used to host them. None lately, but have friends who do them once in a while.

Sent a copy of your letter to Representative Abruzzo of District 85. I'll let you know if I hear back.

Great!

Good luck, Floridians.

Bump,

So whats the next step?

The next step is still the first step: finding a State Representative who will sponsor the legislation. This requires individuals to contact and meet with their own Representatives. If there is a bite (a Rep who says they would consider it), I'd be happy to travel for a meeting.

It is Ted Deutch, he seems to be pretty decent. What was the response from your rep?

None. But he wasn't a good prospect anyway. Let me know if you get anywhere with Ted Deutch.

As someone trying to do something similar in my state, good luck.

"Penny ante" is arbitrary and I think 100 dollars is dangerously low. Even if a .25/50 cent game, I've seen pots exceed 100 dollars quite a few times in a night.

If you have to use an arbitrary limit, I'd raise it past 100 dollars, although I see how non-poker players would think that a few hundred dollars is a lot bigger than it seems.

Good luck, though!

There are over 25 commercial poker rooms in FL. I think their opposition to anything over $100 would be too great to overcome.

I'm from Missouri and when riverboats came in, the language allowing home games got taken out.

That may be true, BUT it seems like allowing each round to reach $100 would cover it if pre-flop is a round, the flop is a round, etc.

The language PX wants to propose would say that no single wager is to exceed $100. So a pot reaching that amount would be fine, provided no one person commits more than $100 to the pot. Actually, I guess it'd depend on how you define "wager". Would a wager be the amount bet over the course of a hand, or in a single betting round?

Yes, that's correct. My language means that each player in a hand could put up to $100 max into the pot for the hand.