Just as Florida poker players are celebrating the coming new poker limits (the Florida Legislature sent them to Gov. Charlie Crist today), they’re experiencing mixed signals on chopping tournaments in rooms.
Nick Sortal of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel got to the bottom of the controversy, and says an April 8 memo from Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering Director Milt Champion offers new guidance to the state’s parimutuel poker rooms.
Poker rooms may only allows chops, or dividing up the prize pool differently than first advertised, if doing so is in the room’s internal controls and that it can only happen when a tournament is down to one table and no more than 12 people at that table.
Sarasota Kennel Club and Tampa Bay Downs have called Ante Up to tell us that their internal controls are updated, and no doubt many more rooms have have updated controls by now, too. But some rooms might still be awaiting approval (or decided not to seek it), so players may find that they can’t chop in one room but can in another.
