Nevada Poker Tables Keep Folding Around Silver State, Casino Revenue Falls in February

The total number of Nevada poker tables will shrink once more if the Monte Carlo closes its poker room on April 25 as part of a $450 million renovation that may eliminate the card game from the resort.
It’s simply the latest telling sign that poker doesn’t come with the same attraction it as soon as did.
Nevada poker tables continue to vanish from floors, as casino operators fight to justify the revenue they create when compared with other gambling platforms like slots and blackjack.
The number of Nevada poker tables has decreased by almost 30 percent over the last 10 years.
Poker’s heyday came after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003 on an $86 satellite entry. Their $2.5 million win revolutionized the card game and exploded its worldwide appeal.
Moneymaker outplayed 838 other entrants during his historic win. The following year, the reward was doubled and the total field eclipsed 2,500. The tournament continued growing, and with it, casinos in Vegas modified their gaming floors to allow for the influx of dreamers searching to make it rich and wannabe poker pros.
Across the state, there were 907 poker tables in 2007. Now a ten years later, that quantity will be reduced to just 653 when the Monte Carlo closes its space.
Cash Things
Needless to say, each square foot of the casino flooring is valuable real-estate. Since poker isn’t necessarily a game that is highly profitable operators as they truly are only taking charges for hosting the games, if the seats aren’t remaining occupied, the tables are not likely to last.
In 2016, Nevada gambling enterprises collected $118 million on 661 tables. That equates to each table pulling in about $178,500 if revenues were distributed similarly (which definitely they’re not).
By comparison, the slot that is average in Nevada created nearly $50,000 in win for casinos over the final 12 months. Four slot machines occupy less space compared to a poker table, and don’t require a dealer.
Revenue Retracts, Visitors Disappear
Nevada casino revenue dropped in February by roughly 4.5 % year-over-year, as the state’s 327 video gaming areas taken in $945.6 million in earnings. But 2016’s Leap Year provides a reason for part of the loss, as analysts rationalized that the additional day last February accounted for about three percent of this decrease.
Gaming regarding the Las Vegas Strip ended up being additionally down to the tune of five percent to $541.9 million. But Downtown Las Vegas proceeded its run that is strong earnings rose over two %. Revenue there was up 10 percent throughout the last three months.
The Boulder Strip and North Las Vegas were the biggest losers, as income plummeted nine and seven percent, respectively.
Possibly more concerning than that 1.5 percent statewide gaming drop (adjusted for the Leap Year calculation) is the fact that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced this week that visitation dropped 5.5 % in February 2017. That marks the drop that is biggest since June of 2009.
While gaming is up almost five percent year-to-date in Clark County, visitor volume is down 2.2 percent within the first couple of months of 2017. It’s still early in the 12 months, but reason that is certainly enough some concern in Sin City.
Pennsylvania Gambling Machines Could Soon Cozy Up to the Bar
Pennsylvania gambling devices might soon be welcomed inside bars and licensed liquor establishments, as well as truck stops and off-track venues that are betting.
A Pennsylvania gambling expansion push myfreepokies.com by a bipartisan group of lawmakers hopes to spot gambling terminals in bars and taverns. (Image: Lee Filas/Chicago Daily Herald)
Though no legislation is introduced regarding the video wagering terminals, an organization of lawmakers in the Keystone State are soliciting help to authorize up to 40,000 devices. This week, the bipartisan coalition of state politicians unveiled a plan that displays $500 million being sent to Harrisburg should the gaming that is video (VGT) be permitted.
State Senator man Reschenthaler (R-Allegheny County) will be the prime sponsor and writer of the forthcoming legislation.
‘40,000 unlawful VGTs are now operating in Pennsylvania within an unlicensed, unregulated, untaxed black colored market,’ Reschenthaler said during a press seminar. ‘We need to legalize this industry to bring it out of the shadows through licensure and regulation to make certain protections against underage and problem gambling while producing much-needed income for our Commonwealth.’
Reduced Slots Tax
The only Pennsylvania-based casino operator, is helping craft the measure in promoting his legislation, Reschenthaler says this time around with VGTs is different than prior attempts because Penn National Gaming.
Casinos in past years have been strongly in opposition to allowing bars and taverns to host real cash wagering devices. The catch is that land-based gambling enterprises would see their tax now obligations for slot devices reduced from 34 percent to 29 percent.
Eric Schippers, Penn nationwide’s advertising executive, said the mathematics of the VGT statute adds up for his company, which has the Hollywood Casino in Grantville in Central Pennsylvania.
Though Reschenthaler has not yet brought his bill to the legislature, he explained liquor establishments would be allowed to host up to five devices. Truck stops and OTB sites would be allowed 10.
Maximum bets would be capped at $5, with a $1,000 payout ceiling per individual each day. Locations would pay 34 percent of their gross revenues to their state, plus an additional four percent share tax that is local.
Online Gambling Hyped
Pennsylvania lawmakers are engulfed in an assortment of pushing gambling issues facing the state. Along with the possible legalization of VGTs, the state requires to amend its local share tax law that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court deemed unlawful last autumn.
If a solution isn’t found, communities that host gambling enterprises stand to reduce $10 million annually, which frequently accounts for a substantial level of a county’s overall operating budget.
With Governor Tom Wolf (D) looking to improve spending on education, as well as the state facing a drug epidemic, Pennsylvania is in desperate need of cash. Gambling is seen as one such saving grace, nonetheless it’s not merely land-based expansion that’s being targeted.
Online gambling legislation normally loitering in the halls of the State Capitol, and a brand new study concludes that Pennsylvania appears to enjoy a huge selection of millions of dollars in added revenue should internet casinos go live.
In a white paper titled ‘Pennsylvania on the web Gaming income: A Billion-Dollar Opportunity,’ research analysts recommend roughly $426 million would be directed to Harrisburg from a legalized and regulated internet gambling market.
Schippers has been an advocate for online gambling. Throughout a legislative hearing on closing iGaming prohibition in Massachusetts this month, Schippers said states should legalize online gambling to ‘protect our businesses’ and prevent offshore operators from ‘poaching.’
Penn National Set to Dominate Market with $44 Million Purchase of Two Tunica, Mississippi Casinos
Evidently Penn National did not think three’s an audience as it just closed on a $44 million deal to incorporate two Tunica casinos to its portfolio.
The company that is pennsylvania-based has Hollywood Casino Tunica and will now operate Bally’s Casino Tunica and Resorts Casino Tunica.
Penn nationwide bought Bally’s Casino Tunica and Resorts Casino Tunica fro a reported $44 million now has three facilities in the area nearby the Mississippi River. (Image: SunHerald.com)
It was all element of a transaction that included the organization’s owning a home trust buying the land the gambling enterprises are on for $82.6 million.
A lease deal was signed between your two organizations which will enable Penn National to work the casinos having a rental agreement of $9 million per year.
‘The acquisition will add two complimentary casinos to the Hollywood that is existing Casino operations,’ Penn nationwide President and CEO Timothy J. Wilmott in a statement. ‘Thereby presenting Penn National because of the chance to reap the benefits of a centralized local management framework.’
Capturing More Market Share
Pending approval by the Mississippi Gaming Board, which can be anticipated by June, it will be considered a coup that is strategic the business and allow them to have a dominating presence in the area.
Resorts Casino Tunica is next-door neighbors with their existing property and has 35,000 square feet, featuring 800 slot machines and nine table games, along side a 201-room hotel.
Bally’s Casino Tunica is the prize that is real the agreement. It’s the closest facility within the city to downtown Memphis, Tennessee, simply 34 miles away. It offers 40,000 square feet while offering 947 slot machines and 16 table games, and also a steakhouse, buffet restaurant, 24-hour cafe and entertainment venue that is live.
Gambling on Area Rebounding
The resorts were struck hard by the recession and had filed bankruptcy and had been paid to creditors. Revenues final year for the two properties were a combined $21 million.
Caesar’s has three resorts in the state that have been incorporated into their bankruptcy filing two years ago.
You will find 16 casinos along the Mississippi River and the Associated Press revealed receipts dropped more than 10 per cent to $77 million in February versus $86 million last year. Two weeks hence two companies were rejected permits to build a destination in Biloxi and Diamondhead
But officials at Penn National remain optimistic that they could thrive within the area. Wilmott said he expects to help with the casinos to aid build profits.
NFL Still In Opposition to Legalizing Sports Betting, Says Goodell
The NFL’s owners could have emphatically authorized the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas this week, but just just in case anyone was laboring beneath the belief that the league had gone soft on activities betting, its commissioner Roger Goodell felt the need to set them straight on Tuesday.
The NFL’s Roger Goodell insists the integrity of the game is number 1 but the league has no intention of having its powers to stop Las Vegas recreations publications from taking wagers on Raiders games. (Image: The Atlantic)
Ownership stays compared to legalized recreations betting in the US, he said, due to issues about players betting on their games that are own. He did acknowledge, however, that regulated wagering in Nevada could possibly be ‘beneficial’ to the activity.
‘I think we still strongly oppose legalized recreations gambling,’ Goodell told reporters at a news conference after owners meetings in Phoenix. ‘The integrity of our game is number one. We will perhaps not compromise on that.
‘That is a major risk for us,’ he proceeded. ‘I think we have to ensure you see on the field is not influenced by any outside factors. we continue to stay focused on making certain that everyone else has full self-confidence that just what’
70-Year Grudge
The NFL’s distaste for gambling is a hangover from the forties and fifties, whenever sport had been plagued by match-fixing scandals. Probably the most famous of these came in in 1946 when two New York Giants players, Frank Filchock and Merle Hapes, were bribed to throw the NFL Championship game up against the Chicago Bears.
Seventy years is a number of years to hold a grudge, though, and despite Goodell’s assertion to the contrary, there is no doubt there has been a softening of the league’s stance.
Gambling drives engagement in sports, once the NFL knows only too well through Fantasy Sports Leagues to its association and there is definitely an acceptance that, into the digital age, Las vegas, nevada not has a monopoly on wagering.
‘ We Possibly May As Well Embrace It’
In the lead as much as the vote, one AFC owner, who desired to remain anonymous, told MMQB’s Albert Breer that the concept there would be a backlash among owners on the basis of the gambling standpoint was ‘a joke.’
‘ That was an issue decades ago,’ the origin said. ‘Now? Sports gambling will be legal. We might too embrace it and become part of the solution, rather than fight it. It’s in everyone’s needs because of it to be above-board.’
The NFL’s Regulation 22 allows the league to request the prohibition of bets on games held in Nevada, offered the governing body writes to the Nevada Gaming Control Board within 30 days before any game that is such.
When pushed on whether he meant to try this, Goodell stated the league had no such plans.
