Following the lead of Mardi Gras Gaming, Dania Jai-Alai has expanded its poker room hours beyond the original state mandate of 12 hours per day.

Dania will be open from noon to 3 a.m. -- or later -- on Friday and Saturday nights, effective tonight.

"If we have three or four tables going late, we’ll just stay open as long as they're playing," assistant GM Marty Fleischman said.

The state signed off on 12-hour poker rooms at parimutuels back in 2007. But language said "per permit." Mardi Gras, Dania and others hold more than one permit, and their request to stack them was granted by the Department of Administrative Hearings.

So Mardi Gras' Dan Adkins went to the state earlier this year and received approval to expand. They went 24 hours in July 1.

Dania, citing Mardi Gras' case, recently received the same approval.

For poker players, this might mean a few more late-night tournaments, Fleischman said. With a 12-hour rule, a tournament that started at, say, 10 p.m., made no sense because the doors closed before a finish. Now, the fronton is considering such tournaments, he said.

It also will extend hours to 2 a.m. for the next Dan Le Batard poker tourney, on Sept. 17. (See earlier post.)

The fronton also now gives free alcoholic drinks, soft drinks and coffee to those playing in cash games, he said.