New Florida cardroom rules!

From an article in Pokertimes.com -

"Mike Sexton is fond of saying "The price of poker is going up." Well in
Florida that may soon be true. A bill recently passed through Florida House
and Senate, raising the maximum betting limits in Florida. Unless Governor
Crist vetoes it, which is not anticipated, the new law will go into effect
on July 1, 2007.

While poker has been legal in Florida, the maximum betting limit had been
set at $2, with a maximum of three raises in any betting round. The pending
law has raised the betting limit to $5. The new law also allows no limit
Texas Hold'em, providing the required buy-in is no more than $100. A
provision for tournament poker is expressly defined, allowing buy-ins
(including rebuys) not Aussie Millions to exceed ten times what a
participant could potentially wager in one hand on non-tournament poker.

Legislators considered expanding cardroom hours to 24 a day, but the
operational hours were ultimately left at 12 hours per day. However, the
new law no longer specifies the hours of operation, originally set at noon
to midnight. It also allows pari-mutuel cardrooms to operate on any day;
previously pari-mutuel cardrooms could only operate when wagering was
opened for pari-mutuel events. Predictably, licensing fees for cardrooms
were also increased.

Whether intentional or not, the new law seems to have some wiggle room for
higher buy-in no limit games and tournaments. On the first reading of the
bill, one might assume that they'll be an explosion of $1/$2 no limit
Hold'em games being spread with a maximum buy-in of $100. But on subsequent
reads, the new law only specifies the limit of the "required" buy-in, or
the implied minimum buy-in amount, for a no limit game, not the maximum
limit. Since the tournament buy-in limit is expressly tied to the maximum
amount a player can wager on one hand in a no limit game, this too has some
wiggle room for substantially higher tournament buy-ins.

Florida cardrooms are currently assessing the new games they will spread
under the new legislation. On the limit side, it is expected there will be
a plethora of $2/$4 games, but $1-$5 spread games and $5/$5 limit games are
also likely. One cardroom is currently evaluating the introduction of a
$2.50 chip for a $2.50/$5 game, consistent with a limit offered at the
Tropicana in Atlantic City. On the no limit side, $1/$2 is expected to be
an immediate cardroom staple. How long will it be before cardrooms test the
wiggle room on no limit buy-ins? Time will tell. "