Casinos Are Rushing To Reopen Or Enlarge
Poker Rooms June 1, 2004
Many Las Vegas casinos that were racing to shut down their poker rooms just a few years ago are rushing to reopen or enlarge them now.
Gaming operators and poker fans credit the revival of poker rooms on soaring customer demand based on television's new fascination with the game and the appeal of Internet poker sites.
People such as Chris Moneymaker, who parlayed a $40 Internet poker game investment into a $2.4 million first-place prize at last year's World Series of Poker, have become celebrities. Other gamblers hope to emulate his success, something apparent at this year's 35th annual World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe, where a record of 2,567 people entered the championship final.
"A casino without poker is like ordering a hamburger that doesn't come with fries. The whole thing feels incomplete," joked one local player asked not to be identified.
Cyndy Violette, a veteran of big-money poker tournaments, said poker is beginning to draw more interest from fans of other table games.
"I was playing recently in the Bellagio's poker room. I decided to take a break for a while and went out to a blackjack table," she said. "I couldn't believe it. Everyone else at the table was a serious blackjack player. They've played in local blackjack tournaments. I didn't know any of them until I sat down at the table. We start talking poker and they all want to play poker. They're attracted by what they've seen on television."
Casino officials agree that poker is beginning to play a larger role in drawing gamblers from other games.
"We've recently added to our poker room, we have more higher-limit games and, yes, we get good cross-over activity," Palms General Manager Jim Hughes said.
Doug Dalton, the poker operations director at Bellagio, which has one of the busiest poker rooms in Las Vegas, said: "A lot of casinos don't try too hard to track its players, or if they do they're not happy with the results and don't want to talk about them. But we work very hard at understanding the benefits of a successful card room. We've got some million-dollar players who spend time in the poker room and the pit."
Dalton insists poker has helped boost Bellagio's reputation as a destination with global appeal.
"Our international customers are more inclined than a lot of Americans to try a variety of casino activities and poker's the game everyone is talking about," he said. "Any time you don't have diversity in your package of casino offerings, you risk losing customers to hotels that do have diversity. And with competition what it is here, you can have a hard time getting that customer back."
Tropicana President Hector Mon said: "Poker is generating a buzz that raises a level of expectations the full-service casino wants to satisfy."
The Tropicana does not have a poker room, only because the resort is considering a major redevelopment that could begin next year. Mon said pressures on the cost of poker operations have eased during recent years as more people have been drawn to bigger games producing a larger rake.
The larger profit is another reason that many local resorts, including the MGM Grand, are reopening their poker rooms.
Another executive with a company that expects to offer poker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: "Right now you have customers walking into places all over town without poker and they're saying they want to play hold'em. People just assume you have it."
A Monte Carlo official said its poker room is being expanded. He adds: "It used to be that the average age of our players was somewhere north of 50, but we're seeing a lot more people in their 20s and 30s. That's an attractive demographic, and revenues are up 40-something percent over a year ago because we've got more tables active each day."
Veteran poker executive Eric Drache, who consulted on the recent reopening of the Golden Nugget's room, sees poker as a choice maker for some casinogoers.
"(It's) another reason for people to choose one hotel over a place that does not have it, for instance, Bellagio, which has a card room, over Caesars Palace, which does not," he said.
Poker's higher visibility among people with an inclination to gamble also helps explain why Harrah's was willing to invest millions in the purchase of the World Series of Poker, which it plans to use as a marketing tool.
But 10 to 12 years, ago, Las Vegas area resort executives began closing card rooms as quickly as they could order the slots to fill these spaces.
"And they'll close them again at some places," said an executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "You treat poker as a stepchild, treat it like it's not a winner, and the appeal will fade at casinos where such an attitude becomes apparent."
No one pretends that poker is the most profitable use of floor space in a casino.
"Poker does not make as much as slots, but it's like a race and sports book, something that helps you keep people in your place," Horseshoe Gaming President Jack Binion said. "It's hard to do business without it."
