Florida Virutal Blackjack

Under the current federal law, the Seminole Tribe of Florida is allowed to have any table card game that is authorized anywhere in Florida

While there has been a debate going on for the better part of two years within the state of Florida over whether the Seminole Tribe of Florida can own and operate the massively popular table card game of Blackjack within the walls of their brick and mortar casinos, there is now a new debate in terms of virtual Blackjack that is going to keep this debate going for quite some time.  When a player bellies up to a Blackjack table at a brick and mortar casino they are greeted by a dealer at a felt Blackjack table.  The player sits in the company of three or four other Blackjack patrons as the dealer distributes the cards that will be used to play the hands.  In virtual Blackjack, players sit around a TV monitor, and there’s an electronic board instead of chips. Winners are chosen from a random number generator, the same kind of system that is used in common slot machines.

 

Under the current federal law, the Seminole Tribe of Florida is allowed to have any table card game that is authorized anywhere in Florida.  The question with this issue, though, is whether or not virtual Blackjack is the same as the real Vegas style Blackjack.  Dan Adkins, president of Mardi Gras casino, recently said that that issue is an extremely difficult one that may take some time to figure out.  He said that the virtual blackjack that they have is like a slot machine, and that there is no live dealer, no cards and no chips. He also said that every machine has a random number generator, and element that will be a contentious issue as the debate moves forward.