Poker Craze Dwindles In Vegas; Casinos & Online Gambling Sites Lose Big Bucks

Although the big craze surrounding Texas Hold’Em and the game of poker didn’t jump off until the 80’s, many casinos are feeling its downfall on the Las Vegas strip.

In the past few years, the recession (or plain love for the game) has caused a huge shift in the popularity of poker. Many casinos are now having to close its poker rooms because of the lack of revenue the game generates. The Tropicana Hotel, for instance, decided to open up a hip new poker room in efforts to draw poker players in. But, since there has been a big crackdown on online poker sites and patrons’ lack of participation, the Tropicana changed their minds.

According to the Associated Press…

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.

Although other Vegas hotels aren’t feeling the effects , and ensures that their poker rooms are booming, poker revenue has drastically dropped in the last couple of years. The federal governments crackdown on virtual gambling caused revenues to steadily drop by 6% year over year.

Poker revenues stacked up to $123 million last year, down from a high of $168 million in 2007.

 

Entries in the World Series of Poker’s main event also took tumble in 2007, falling by 28 percent from a high of 8,773. Entries have only topped 7,000 once in the years since.

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