Florida Casinos Payback Percentage

Florida has three forms of casino gambling: casino boats, Indian casinos and gaming machines at pari-mutuel facilities.

Casino Boats

A variety of boats are in operation ranging from Port Canaveral's 1,800-passenger, Ambassador II cruise ship all the way down to the yacht-sized SunCruz I casino boat in Key Largo which carries 149 passengers.

All Florida casino boats offer: Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Slots and Video Poker. Some casino boats also offer: Mini-Baccarat, Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Three-Card Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let It Ride, Big 6 Wheel and Bingo.

Each casino boat sets its own minimum gambling age: on some boats it's 21 and on others it's 18. The minimum drinking age on all boats is 21.

Indian Casinos

Florida has eight Indian gaming locations. The Seminole Tribe has seven and the eighth is on the Miccosukee Tribe's reservation.

A compact was signed by Florida's Governor in late 2007 that allows the Seminole's to offer traditional Class III slots as well as blackjack and baccarat. The class III machines are now in operation and the games of blackjack and baccarat are expected to be offered beginning mid-June 2008, unless a pending lawsuit filed by the Florida legislature voids the compact.

The Miccosukee tribe is not part of the compact and offers only class II video gaming devices that look like slot machines, but are actually bingo games and the spinning reels are for "entertainment purposes only."

The other games allowed are: high-stakes bingo, video pull tabs, low-limit poker games (maximum $5 bet, 3 raises per round, no limit to number of rounds) and no-limit poker with a maximum buy-in of $100. Similar poker limits can also be found in many of the state's pari-mutuel facilities (horse tracks, dog tracks, jai-alai frontons and one harness track).

All casinos are open 24 hours (except Brighton and Big Cypress) and all offer bingo except for both Seminole Hard Rock Casinos and the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek. The minimum gambling age is 18 at all Indian casinos for bingo or poker and 21 for electronic gaming machines and all other casino games.

Pari-Mutuel Facilities

In early 2005 voters in Broward County (home county of Fort Lauderdale) passed a referendum to allow slot machines at four pari-mutuel facilities within that county.

The first slot facilities opened in late 2006 and two others followed within six months. The fourth facility, Dania Jai-Alai, is not expected to add slots until late 2009 at the earliest. Florida gaming regulations require a minimum payback of 85% on all gaming machines.

The following table shows the average gaming machine payback percentage in three Florida Pari-Mutuel Facilities from November 15, 2006 through June 30, 2007:

PARI-MUTUEL FACILITY	PAYBACK PERCENTAGE
Gulfstream	90.50%
Mardi Gras Gaming	91.13%
The Isle	91.74%

Broward's four pari-mutuel facilities also offer poker games with low stakes similar to the Indian casinos. Admission to all casinos is free and they are allowed to be open a maximum of 16 hours during the week and 24 hours on the weekends.

The minimum gambling age is 18 for pari-mutuel betting or poker and 21 for gaming machines.

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