Poker in Florida: live poker rooms, online sites and the law

Where to play live poker in Florida

Live poker is legal in Florida in two kinds of places: card rooms at licensed pari-mutuel facilities (horse tracks, former greyhound tracks and jai-alai frontons), which the Florida Gaming Control Commission licenses every year, and the casinos of the Seminole Tribe. For July 2026 to June 2027, 30 pari-mutuel permitholders hold a card room license.

Region	Poker rooms (city)
Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach	Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood (Hollywood) · Palm Beach Kennel Club (West Palm Beach) · The Big Easy Casino and Gulfstream Park (Hallandale Beach) · The Casino @ Dania Beach (Dania Beach) · Harrah's Pompano Beach (Pompano Beach) · Hialeah Park (Hialeah) · Casino Miami (Miami) · Calder (Miami Gardens)
Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida	Seminole Hard Rock Tampa (Tampa) · TGT Poker & Racebook (Tampa) · Tampa Bay Downs (Oldsmar) · Derby Lane (St. Petersburg) · One-Eyed Jack's (Sarasota) · Bonita Springs Poker Room (Bonita Springs)
Jacksonville and Northeast Florida	bestbet Jacksonville · bestbet Orange Park · bestbet St. Augustine
Orlando, Daytona and the Space Coast	Orange City Racing & Card Club (Orange City) · Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club (Daytona Beach) · Melbourne Greyhound Park (Melbourne) · Card House Port St. Lucie (Port St. Lucie)
Panhandle	Ebro Greyhound Park (Ebro) · Pensacola Greyhound Track (Pensacola) · Creek Entertainment Gretna (Gretna)

The biggest rooms. According to DeucesCracked, bestbet Jacksonville (about 70 tables) and Palm Beach Kennel Club (about 67) are the largest card rooms, and the Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Tampa and Hollywood have more than 40 tables each. Hollywood hosts the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO), one of the biggest live series in the country.

Near Orlando. Orlando itself has no licensed card room in the 2026-2027 list. The closest is Orange City Racing & Card Club, a 33-table room about 30 miles north of downtown, run by Delaware North, which also runs the Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club.

Card room licenses are renewed every year, and hours, games and limits change. Check with the room before you go, including the minimum age.

How online poker works in Florida

No state-licensed site. Florida has never licensed online poker. Online sports betting exists only through the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet app, under the tribe’s compact with the state; online poker and casino games are not licensed.

What the law says about players. Florida Statute 849.08 makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to play or bet at “any game at cards” for money outside the places the law allows, and it doesn’t carve out online play. Small home games are a separate exception. There is no record of a Florida player being prosecuted for playing online poker at an international site. In 2026, a bill to ban internet gambling explicitly and raise penalties (HB 189) died when the session ended on March 13. Federal law (UIGEA, 2006) restricts how banks process gambling payments and does not criminalize players.

What that means for you. International rooms that accept Florida players are not licensed by the state, so Florida consumer protections do not apply. Choose rooms with a long track record and keep only what you are playing with on the site. See the overview for the whole country in our US online poker guide.

Which partner rooms accept Florida players

All four of our US-facing rooms with rakeback accept Florida:

• Ignition Poker: the biggest US-facing room, with anonymous tables, a 150% Bitcoin bonus and 40% rakeback through our link.
• ACR Poker: the biggest guaranteed tournaments open to US players (the Venom, the OSS), a 100% bonus up to $2,000 and 35% rakeback.
• BetOnline Poker: on the Chico network, with a crypto-friendly cashier and 33% rakeback.
• CoinPoker: crypto-only, tables in USDT, HUDs allowed and 30% rakeback every week.

The ranked list at the top of this page is sorted by the rakeback you get through RakebackPokerWorld. To see how much comes back with your own monthly rake, use the rakeback calculator.

Deposits and withdrawals from Florida

US banks often block card payments to gambling sites, so crypto is the most reliable way to move money in and out of international rooms:

1. Buy Bitcoin or USDT on an exchange that accepts Florida residents.
2. Copy the deposit address from the room’s cashier and send it, checking the network the cashier indicates.
3. To cash out, request a crypto withdrawal and sell on the exchange. Crypto payouts usually arrive within hours.

Start with a small test amount. With USDT, your balance follows the dollar instead of moving with the Bitcoin price. The step by step is in how to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin at poker sites.

Taxes

Florida has no state income tax, but gambling winnings, live or online, are taxable income under federal law. Keep records of your results and talk to a tax professional about your situation.