A look at Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club ahead of busy slate of summer poker tournaments

Jim Abbott, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
·3 min read

With greyhound racing now only a memory, the future is in the cards at Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club, an attraction with seven decades of tradition at the World’s Most Famous Beach.

This summer, the business on Williamson Boulevard is rolling out another busy slate of high stakes poker tournaments with events that include this weekend’s $100,000 Great American Poker Tournament Summer Big Stack Tournament unfolding June 22–26.

In case you missed it: Without dog races, future is in cards at iconic Daytona Beach attraction

In July, the schedule continues with a series of tournaments that include the $300,000 Guaranteed Multi-Day Great American Poker Tournament July 20-24.

Poker propels rebound from loss of dog racing

In the social media era, the Daytona card room and its sister business in West Volusia County, the Orange City Racing & Card Club, each stream a brisk schedule of Great American Poker Tournament events on sites that include Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube.

Fred Guzman president and general manager of Daytona Beach Racing and Card Club, is pictured at one of the gaming tables at the Daytona Beach attraction. The business is hosting a busy slate of poker tournaments this summer.
Fred Guzman president and general manager of Daytona Beach Racing and Card Club, is pictured at one of the gaming tables at the Daytona Beach attraction. The business is hosting a busy slate of poker tournaments this summer.

The tournaments have enabled the businesses to rebound from the demise of greyhound racing in Florida following the overwhelming passage in the 2018 midterm elections of Amendment 13 to ban the sport on Jan. 1, 2021.

Simulcast betting also part of mix

Card players complement racing fans that still patronize the simulcast area that offers horse and dog racing betting from tracks across the country.

More: Florida lawmakers voted for a massive gambling expansion. But what betting is legal in Florida now?

In its state-of-the-art home near the intersection of interstates 4 and 95, the Daytona Beach Racing & Card Room features a 55-table card room, private betting carrels, and over 300 HD TVs that simulcast thoroughbred racing, harness racing, greyhound racing, and jai-alai from across the country.

A long history in Daytona Beach

When the Volusia County Kennel Club opened in the summer of 1948, the facility stood alone in the woodlands just off U.S. 92 and served as the unofficial gateway to Daytona Beach.

When the doors opened for the inaugural evening of racing on June 2, 1948, a crowd of 3,695 adults paid the 25-cent admission price and wagered $53,708 on the slate of dog races.

Over the decades, the Kennel Club name morphed into Daytona Beach Kennel Club and then Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club under the ownership of Delaware North Companies, an industry leader that operates gaming and hospitality services in New York, Florida, Arizona, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Hampshire, and Ohio. Delaware North bought the kennel club in 1987.

A move and an expansion

In 2008, the dog track moved from its original International Speedway Boulevard location next door to Daytona International Speedway to its current home on Williamson Boulevard and expanded its card room. The move was a land swap deal with the Speedway that enabled the iconic NASCAR track to expand its footprint.

The company opened the Orange City Racing & Card Club in 2017, a $6 million transformation of a former movie theater off Saxon Boulevard into a venue featuring a 33-table poker room, restaurant and sports bar, and simulcast racing center.

Timeline: Daytona Beach Racing & Card Room

  • 1948: Volusia County Kennel Club opens on June 2.

  • 1958: John Masoni of Cleveland, Ohio, buys the facility and renames it Daytona Beach Kennel Club.

  • 1960: Daytona Beach Kennel Club sponsors winning stock car in Daytona 500. Local mechanic Ray Fox built the car and motor in a shop on Mason Avenue. Driver Junior Johnson wheeled it to victory. The winning trophy is now on display at Daytona Beach Racing & Card Room.

  • 1987: Delaware North Companies buy the kennel club from Masoni.

  • 1997: Poker room opens.

  • 2008: Kennel club moves from its original location next to speedway to Williamson Boulevard

  • 2017: The club changes its name to Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club. Delaware North opens Orange City Racing & Card Club in west Volusia County.

  • 2020: Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club suspends greyhound racing on March 20, 2020, after voters approve Amendment 13 to ban the sport in Florida effective Jan. 1, 2021.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Racing & Card Club ready to host slate of poker tournaments