The gambling world is being shocked over the many lay-offs, promotional stoppage, and banning of game play that seems to be taking America by storm.  However two states in the continental United States is trying to give their loyal gamblers a break.  Florida and Colorado have both introduced measures to the government that would allow their poker rooms to stay open anywhere from 18 to 24 hours a day.

So far Florida’s state Senate has approved the measure that would extend the poker rooms business hours to twenty-four hour a day playing on the weekends and eighteen hours a day during the week.  The approval came as part of a pari-mutuel measure.  The state’s House has yet to approve the measure, but people seem somewhat optimistic about their anticipated response.   

The measure is the first step in a larger poker room effort by the state to help promote the game and the tournaments that go with them.  If the measure goes through, the Senate could also request that poker rooms in the state of Florida be allowed to host two high-stakes events that will be televised through the course of the year.  They are also looking at being able to have six celebrity tournaments each year.  The Senate members are hoping that by doing this the poker rooms and casinos will be able to directly compete with the casinos that are being run on the Indian reservations.  The poker rooms on the reservations already have 24 hour poker rooms while any of the rooms that were located on public ground were limited to 12 hours only.

The state of Colorado is pushing for a slightly different poker advantage for their citizens by attempting to get the $5 bet limit on their table games eliminated completely in their casinos.  Senator Ron Tupa feels that the constitutional amendment change can help find easy revenue for the state and help boost the economy.  Table games such as poker and blackjack will be affected by the new ruling if it is passed but he has not proposed a new bet limit, choosing instead to wait and see what his fellow lawmakers say about the proposal and the money could be used.

The proposal will need to have a two-thirds vote in the state House and Senate to even make it onto the ballots for November.  Analysts have suggested that just by doubling the bet limit will help bring in additional revenue around the sum of $13.7 million in the first year alone.