[sam9ball]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2780410.html

LAS VEGAS — The Tropicana hoped to step back into the big leagues when it opened its poker room in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, touting it as the coolest in town.
But that same morning, federal agents shut down the three biggest online poker sites on the Internet. Last September, less than a year and a half later, the iconic casino quietly swapped out its green felt tables for slot machines.
It's a story that's become increasingly common as the crackdown on Internet gambling weakens poker's appeal, and the casinos that once competed to lure fans of Texas Hold `Em abandon the waning game in favor of more lucrative alternatives.
Poker has never been a big moneymaker like slot machines or roulette. But when the game's popularity soared during the 2000s, casinos were willing to forgo the extra dollars to get players inside their buildings.
Now the calculus is shifting. In Sin City, epicenter of the poker craze, at least eight rooms have folded in the past two years. The trend is also playing out in Mississippi riverboats, Indian casinos and gambling halls near big cities from California to Florida.
Poker's proponents insist the game remains as popular as ever, and some larger casinos say their rooms are bustling.

[daneblazer]

Poker has never been a big moneymaker like slot machines or roulette..

That's all you need to know. Casinos want the money maker. Even the ones that have poker now have taken the rooms away from high traffic locations. Use to be you'd see some drunken fish waltz over from the craps table or slots to play some poker but most places have stuck the poker room off in the corner now so that won't happen. They want the fish to dump their money into games where the house has the better advantage, not dump it to a poker reg who is going to cash out and leave the casino with the money. I went to Tahoe about 2 months ago and had to navigate a fukkin labyrinth to get to the poker room at Harrah's. Through fields of slot machines, under a road, into another casino, over the river, through the woods. I got halfway there and said fuk it.

It's pretty scary what's going on with poker now. Some sites are experimenting with software that keeps the fish at tables away from the better players. So if a fish logs on he will never see the table in the lobby where the good players are on, he'll only see tables with other fish. Vice versa...solid players are left to play against solid players. For it's supposed "popularity", casinos and websites have just shit all over poker players.

[sweep]

That's all you need to know. Casinos want the money maker. Even the ones that have poker now have taken the rooms away from high traffic locations. Use to be you'd see some drunken fish waltz over from the craps table or slots to play some poker but most places have stuck the poker room off in the corner now so that won't happen. They want the fish to dump their money into games where the house has the better advantage, not dump it to a poker reg who is going to cash out and leave the casino with the money. I went to Tahoe about 2 months ago and had to navigate a fukkin labyrinth to get to the poker room at Harrah's. Through fields of slot machines, under a road, into another casino, over the river, through the woods. I got halfway there and said fuk it.

It's pretty scary what's going on with poker now. Some sites are experimenting with software that keeps the fish at tables away from the better players. So if a fish logs on he will never see the table in the lobby where the good players are on, he'll only see tables with other fish. Vice versa...solid players are left to play against solid players. For it's supposed "popularity", casinos and websites have just shit all over poker players.

what sites daner?

[daneblazer]

what sites daner?

http://www.pokerfuse.com/news/poker-...egulars-28-02/

http://www.pokerfuse.com/news/poker-...players-01-03/

[sweep]

[UntilTheNDofTimE]

No surprise. Online poker because of volume alone is what makes it a good sale and money maker. However a poker room in a casino is merely a ploy to draw people into the casino that otherwise wouldnt attend for the table games and slots only. Winners might hit the tzble games and losers may chase losses. Same reason why they pay poker tournent winnings in chips and make you walk to cashier to cash them. They want u to play table games. You turn any poker room into a slot machine area and the casino's profits would 10x. I play regularly at one casino that will have 22 poker tables every friday and saturday. The dealers are horrible. The floors are worse. I tell everyone they really dont care cause the poker room makes 5 million a year gross. They really could care less. They have 2,000 slot machines to care about. You will only find good dealers and knowlegable floors at card room where you keep your own tips and dont pull them.

[konck]

Poker at Hard Rock Tampa is booming still the poker at near by Derby Lane is very good also

[GUMMO77]

http://www.pokerfuse.com/news/poker-...egulars-28-02/

http://www.pokerfuse.com/news/poker-...players-01-03/

Thanks, Dane. That's some fukked up shit.

[Inspirited]

oh man that is a disaster. if we can only play people at our skill level then everyone will just be passing around the money and the house will rake it all in. it becomes just like any other casino game.

[Ian]

The article is a reprint of one that came out in February. This is what I wrote in response to it on a poker forum back then:

I'm always sorry when a room closes and employees get put out of work, but I'm not worried about the B&M industry as a whole. With only 1 or 2 exceptions the poker rooms mentioned in the article did poor to almost non-existent business throughout their existence. In Vegas, for every established pre-boom room that closed (like Gold Coast) much bigger rooms opened like Red Rock, Aria, etc. Obiviously, poker isn't as popular as it was in '06, but the difference in traffic between now and when I started playing pre-Moneymaker is enormous. Imo poker's popularity has reached a critical mass where enough people are comfortable playing the game that, at least in Vegas, enough people will trickle into the rooms to keep them reasonably full for the foreseeable future.

Just my opinion...

[Chili_Powder]

Just another thing our goverment fckd up.

[BiTeMe UsAdOj]

Just another thing our goverment fckd up.

[McBa1n]

Nevada is ready to go, almost, for 'online poker' in the US. It's a shame the lobby is so small - also, it's lobbied for/against by big players. I just don't see why, at this point, it's not legalized. Thank both parties, but I put most of the blame on Eric Holder and Bill Frist. To be fair, what Bill Frist did cost me thousands, and then some, per year - so I think I blame the (R) party more. Holder did the 'fatality'. Glad my money was out then, when he laid out his crap. Meh, I'd rant, but it all killed my job. Easier taking money off donks online than having to spend 20 mins to go to the strip and grind less hands per hour. Either way, cards need to be legalized ffs already. If cards were legal, card rooms would do better... Casinos would do better - but yet, big Casino players are lobbying against it. F them.

It's not so much a government f-up, it's a government being PAID OFF. Again, what does some tool bag from some red state have to do with anything other than representing welfare knuckleheads canceling the career from every US punter? Horse racing was untouched, mostly - but punting? KILLED. In this climate? Everyone politician can go f themselves. To me, the (R) party killed a lot of easy money, but took BIGGER money to f us all over - and then the (D) party did the FATALITY - so no one is excused, but a shit Attorney General does NOT equal a congress person - follow the money. One enforces laws, one sucks off the money - so yeah, whatevs, F congress.