Florida poker rooms reopen with new safety guidelines

ORANGE CITY, Fla . - Florida's poker rooms have reopened and new measures have been put in place with guest safety in mind.

If nothing else, it might be a little bit easier to conceal your bluff, because everyone is going to be wearing a mask at the table now as poker gets restarted in Orange City.

 "It's great to bring back my employees to work," said Fred Guzman, general manager at the racing and card clubs in Orange City and Daytona Beach, which shut down March. 

Guests must now pass a temperature check as well as the ID check to get in the building. Any coronavirus symptoms and you're dealt out, according to Guzman, adding that every reasonable precaution has been put in place to try to keep coronavirus out of the facility.

"We limited the number of hours that we're working, we limited the number of tables for social spacing," Guzman explained. "Everyone sitting at that table will be sanitized."

There's no glass around the tables like some rooms, but hand sanitizer bottles are placed at each one. Anytime a guest gets up, they have to scrub back in to touch the cards, as will everything players touch.

Guzman said the chips and cards are being rotated regularly with clean ones. They actually have specialized cleaning crews scrubbing down everything.

"People want to get out, want to enjoy themselves; we're trying to do it in a responsible safe fashion."

Guzman said as the situation evolves, so too will their card rooms.