By
Jerry Smith
Staff Writer Updated: 10/30/2019
Jerry’s greatest advantage is his extensive experience on the casino floor. His time as a casino manager taught him everything about what makes a player tick. Besides being a skilled poker player, he has deep knowledge of all live table games and gambling regulations in the US.
Poker Doesn’t Generate as Much Revenue as Slots and Other Table Games, Photo by Poker, Pixaby
Poker continues to remains a much sought after game in the world of gambling. But players interested in the game will be disappointed to learn that the envisioned Hard Rock Casino Rockford will not feature a live poker room.
Hard Rock International recently made public the fact that they won’t be offering games of live poker at their planned facility. Three weeks back, the giant casino operator was chosen as the preferred bidder to construct and operate a brand spanking new gambling venue in the city of Rockford, northern Illinois.
Following their successful bid, the company is looking to submit their application for the coveted Rockford casino license to the Illinois Gaming Board by the end of October. There is only one license up for grabs.
If the Board sanctions Hard Rock’s application, the company plans on constructing its $310 million facility, which includes a 1,600-seater music venue and 65,000 square feet of gambling space, minus any live poker tables.
The casino section will feature a variety of other gaming options including:
With no live poker on offer, visitors to the venue who relish in the game will be unable to experience popular games of skill and luck that pit players against each other like Texas Hold’em, Seven-card Stud and Omaha high-low.
James Kasputis of the Rockford Charitable Games Association remarked that of the leading reasons why casinos prefer not including live poker rooms is that they require too much square footage and don’t church out a profit that justifies that space.
Anthony Lucas of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that while poker still is a popular game and brings in millions in gaming revenue every year, it doesn’t rake in as much as other tables games and slot machines.
Over the past few years, Lucas says that gambling venues across Sin City have reduced the size of their poker rooms, with some even going so far as to eliminate them completely. He maintains that casino managers see poker as a gaming amenity; in other words, an offering that delivers only marginal operating profits as opposed to more revenue-generating options.
Lucas added that
A casino floor is a war of space. There is a finite amount of it and there is an ongoing turf war. Everyone is jockeying for more space. And they do it by saying, ‘This is the profit per square foot I can produce.’
He concluded by saying that once all the possible uses of space are weighed against each other, the poker room is one of those components that doesn’t fare well in the conversation.
A majority of casino games involve players going against the house, and the latter usually has some advantage. With poker though, casinos make revenue by charging a “rake,” which a fee that players have to pay the casino based on the wagers they make against each other.
On the other hand, gambling venues profit directly from slot machines and other table games because players go up against the house.
According to Lucas, a Las Vegas casino poker room that features 20 tables will bring in about $3 million of operating profit per annum. On the flip side, if that poker room is replaced with 200 slot machines, it would typically generate about $15 million per year.
No wonder then, a considerable number of venues aren’t going with poker. The economics just can’t be argued with.
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