Poker in Florida: licensed card rooms, Seminole Hard Rock and what's legal

Florida is one of the biggest live poker states in America and one of the most restrictive online. Card rooms at horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons have been legal for decades, the Seminole Tribe's casinos host some of the country's biggest festivals, and the minimum age at Florida card rooms is 18 rather than 21. Online, there is no regulated real-money room and no sign of one.

This page is built from two kinds of primary source: the Florida Gaming Control Commission's own cardroom licences, which say who is licensed for how many tables, and the venues' own pages, which say what is actually dealt. The two answer different questions, and a trip to Florida goes better if you read both.

Is online poker legal in Florida?

No regulated real-money online poker exists in Florida. The Seminole Tribe's 2021 compact gave it exclusive rights to online sports betting, not poker, and legislation for online poker has gone nowhere. Sweepstakes poker is the legal-by-design alternative: ClubWPT Gold accepts Florida residents from 18. Offshore sites operate outside Florida law and we do not list them. This is general information, not legal advice.

How Florida licenses poker

There are two separate systems, and conflating them is the commonest mistake in Florida poker coverage.

Pari-mutuel card rooms are licensed by the Florida Gaming Control Commission under the Florida Pari-Mutuel Wagering Act, section 849.086, Florida Statutes. A cardroom licence attaches to a racing or jai-alai permit, names a maximum number of tables and runs for a fiscal year. For the year to 30 June 2027, thirty facilities hold one.

The Seminole Tribe's poker rooms — Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood and Tampa, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek — are licensed under the Seminole Compact instead, and do not appear in that register at all. So any headline count of "licensed Florida poker rooms" drawn from the state register alone leaves out the state's biggest rooms.

Where the licensed tables are

The largest cardroom ceiling in the 2026-2027 pari-mutuel register belongs to Harrah's Pompano Beach in Broward County, licensed to PPI, Inc. for 62 tables — the venue that hosts WSOP Circuit stops. Next come two rooms national coverage tends to skip: Orange City Racing and Card Club at 60 tables and Daytona Beach Racing and Card Club at 58, both in Volusia County, which is therefore licensed for 118 cardroom tables between Orlando and the coast.

After those: Melbourne Greyhound Park 38, Bonita Springs Poker Room 37 (the only licensed pari-mutuel card room on the southwest coast), Oxford Downs at Summerfield 35, OcalaBetS 33, Hialeah Park Racing & Casino and One-Eyed Jack's in Sarasota 32 each, The Big Easy Casino in Hallandale Beach 30, Card House Port St. Lucie 24, and Casino Miami and Pensacola Greyhound Racing 20 each. The bestbet rooms in Jacksonville, Orange Park and St. Augustine, Palm Beach Kennel Club, the Silks room at Tampa Bay Downs, Win! Derby in St. Petersburg and The Casino @ Dania Beach all hold current licences too.

Two entries at the bottom of the register are worth knowing about before you drive anywhere. Calder Casino in Miami Gardens is licensed for 8 tables; Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach and StateLine Bets at Jennings are each licensed for exactly one. A one-table cardroom licence is a permit held current, not a poker room.

One licence to watch: The Big Easy Casino's facility-141 licence is written to expire on 31 December 2026 rather than the 30 June 2027 date nearly every other Florida cardroom licence carries, with a second licence held at the same address by a similarly named entity. Worth a phone call if you are planning a visit after New Year.

Reading a Florida "poker" menu

Florida card rooms routinely advertise two different things on the same page. Player-versus-player poker — No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, tournaments — is the game you want. Designated-player games with poker in the name are not: Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker, High Card Flush and DJ Wild Stud Poker are banked, with a house edge, and a seat at one is not a cash game.

Magic City Casino in Miami lists both groups side by side, clearly labelled, and is a good example of how to read the distinction. It is also why two large Seminole properties appear on this site as verified negatives: Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood and Seminole Casino Hotel Immokalee both advertise slots and live table games with no poker room, and the only poker-named games on their floors are house-banked. For a real game near Hollywood, go to Seminole Hard Rock; near Naples and Fort Myers, to Bonita Springs.

Events

WPT Lucky Hearts (January) and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (spring) anchor the calendar, with the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in summer and bestbet's Jacksonville series in between. The WSOP Circuit visits Harrah's Pompano Beach, and the independent rooms run their own festivals — Palm Beach Kennel Club's multi-flight events and the Fall Classic at Dania Beach among them. Our Florida tournament pages list the stops we track and where each date came from.