ALL local poker rooms permanently closed from Covid, anyone else? (1 Viewer)

Nanook said:
To my way of thinking, a full re-instatement of above board online poker in the US is the one and only thing that will bring back some of the glory days to poker rooms across America.
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At this point - like many other things in the US - it's up to each individual state, based on current interpretation of the Wire Act and other relevant laws.

I think six US states currently have legal online options, and IIRC some states have cross-state compacts that allow players from one state to play with those from another (bigger player pools are good). I don't play online beyond local Mavens games, so I'm not up to date on the current state of things.
 
Nanook said:
I guess I hadn't thought about that.

The whole Black Friday thing has clearly had a MAJOR effect on new players entering into playing poker in the US and consequently a massive downswing in popularity of poker rooms.

To my way of thinking, a full re-instatement of above board online poker in the US is the one and only thing that will bring back some of the glory days to poker rooms across America.

Personally, I am shocked that it hasn't been reinstated long ago. Now with all the expansion of online gambling and sports betting etc it is crazy that poker of all things is banned
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Agreed. It seems like every election cycle, 1-3 states (if not more) approve online sports betting. I’m surprised that they don’t take time to include online poker to these proposals. If state governments think the revenue they generate from sports betting is significant, wait til they include online poker.
 
Schmendr1ck said:
At this point - like many other things in the US - it's up to each individual state, based on current interpretation of the Wire Act and other relevant laws.

I think six US states currently have legal online options, and IIRC some states have cross-state compacts that allow players from one state to play with those from another.....
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Sounds about right


dpeks13 said:
NJ has online, and I played quite a bit over the last year or so, but nothing beats sitting down at a table.
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Very true for me as well, however I believe that online poker is like a gateway drug to live poker. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but I think you get my point.

pokerplayingpisces said:
Agreed. It seems like every election cycle, 1-3 states (if not more) approve online sports betting. I’m surprised that they don’t take time to include online poker to these proposals. If state governments think the revenue they generate from sports betting is significant, wait til they include online poker.
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Yea, I'm not sure how the two compare, but there is no doubt that it would be significant.

I just don't get it at all......
 
bergs said:
Vegas poker rooms have shut down too. They’re closing all over the country. It’s not the most profitable move for the casino to open or maintain one - the ones that have them try to use them as a market differentiator. COVID have several properties the cover they needed to close em and put slots there instead.

The poker boom is over. Thanks Obama (and you GTO hoodie wearing math solver weenies that sucked the fun out of holdem).
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The poker boom is over? Last year's tournament entries for WSOP, for example, are matching all time highs. And its not just WSOP. Real question, how is the boom over when its climbed back to record highs just 2 years after it was shut down across the whole country?
 
Rome said:
The poker boom is over? Last year's tournament entries for WSOP, for example, are matching all time highs. And its not just WSOP. Real question, how is the boom over when its climbed back to record highs just 2 years after it was shut down across the whole country?
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That’s one event in one venue. My point was poker rooms are closing left and right with zero plans to reopen.
 
Rome said:
The poker boom is over? Last year's tournament entries for WSOP, for example, are matching all time highs. And its not just WSOP. Real question, how is the boom over when its climbed back to record highs just 2 years after it was shut down across the whole country?
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I think poker has been in decline for over a decade. Now it is further getting killed from, initially covid, and then more so with rooms either closing, or never reopening.

Look at the Mirage. The room was one of the most popular on the strip. It closed. It's now a non-smoking slot room.

Slots don't require dealers, and don't call in sick.

Tournament participation might be high, but what's the explanation for all the rooms closing.

Decreased players, gambling being down across the nation, and casino bottom lines.
 
Rome said:
The poker boom is over?
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If you think poker rooms are not slower than they were 10, 15 or 20 years ago you haven't been in too many card rooms lately....

bergs said:
That’s one event in one venue. My point was poker rooms are closing left and right with zero plans to reopen.
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It's not only this, but 15 years ago anytime you'd go to a cardroom and just about any game you'd get into there were obvious "new to the game" players in the game. Usually there would be 3 or 4 players out of 9 that barely knew the rules, much less any strategy & there would always be new faces.

Today, you can't hardly ever find a game with even 1 completely clueless player & I almost never see new faces.

It's pretty obvious.....
Poker has slowed dramatically and it has gotten much tougher in the last 15 yrs
 
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bergs said:
That’s one event in one venue. My point was poker rooms are closing left and right with zero plans to reopen.
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TomC727 said:
I think poker has been in decline for over a decade. Now it is further getting killed from, initially covid, and then more so with rooms either closing, or never reopening.

Look at the Mirage. The room was one of the most popular on the strip. It closed. It's now a non-smoking slot room.

Slots don't require dealers, and don't call in sick.

Tournament participation might be high, but what's the explanation for all the rooms closing.

Decreased players, gambling being down across the nation, and casino bottom lines.
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I think that's my point. When I think of a boom being over, I think of there being no more interest. The decline/downsizing of poker, or the "boom being over" is a fabricated byproduct of casino's closing rooms despite player interest, and government's ruining things like they usually do with screwing up availability of online poker as well.

Poker is more popular in streaming, video consumptions, classes, subscriptions, etc than it has ever been. People want to play, and the powers that be are artificially squashing it. Maybe that equates to a "boom" being over, but I don't think thats the best terminology for an artificial deflation of available games. Stupid casinos.
 
SoCalDan said:
All the poker rooms in and around the Los Angeles area are on and poppin! Sounds like it's raining chips in there.
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Up north from LA the Chumash Casino will soon be closing its poker room. Ironically they never shut down during covid. Something about not enough dealers so they are shutting down. The demand is still there.
 
Poker boom crash? Blame these...

- Obama-era DOJ shuts down online venues
- ESPN reduces coverage, PokerGo charges
- Casinos fail to find ways to poker-profit

Make it illegal, shut down mass exposure, and replace it with better earning options. That will kill off the new blood of any activity.
 
SendThatStack said:
Something about not enough dealers
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We are in desperate need of dealers here........
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Rome said:
The poker boom is over? Last year's tournament entries for WSOP, for example, are matching all time highs. And its not just WSOP. Real question, how is the boom over when its climbed back to record highs just 2 years after it was shut down across the whole country?
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Were you around for the poker boom times? It was INSANE, and yes, it has died in a major way since those days. Online poker... a dozen MAJOR websites, and waiting lists to get into a table. Cruise ships had multiple tables with long waiting lists to play, even with disgustingly high rakes. I never went to a casino poker room that there wasnt a line. And fish... so many fish. All you had to do was play tight-aggressive and you could clean up, ever day. Every casino, including two-bit Indian casinos had poker rooms.

Yes, the poker boom is most definitely over, and it all started with black friday.
 
dpeks13 said:
Yeah I stand corrected on that one.
What we really need is for Rounders 2 to come out....
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Just need 50 state legal combined player pools online, TV commercials and more people willing to be dealers. Not too much to ask is it? :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
Most of the people hit the nail on the head. . While poker was shut down post 'rona, the 'gamblers' (that weren't exclusively poker players), still found ways to spend their money. Casinos hit all time highs in profit once they re-opened, because poker players were playing slots and tables. They didn't lose the money that players traded back and forth, but instead, it got shoveled into machines. As poker opened back up, some of that machine play dropped.

Poker is a money pit loser for casinos. The rake isn't enough to keep it afloat. Free drinks, free food buffets, poker players are some of the most needy people in the casino, and they make the property the least amount of money. Push some of that money to the slots, it's good business to shut down poker.

Poker traditionally was like a daddy day-care for the casino. What they hope it does, is bring in the wives to bang away on the slot machines while the men play long enough for the wives to lose on the machines. That's legit the reason poker has survived for so long. Traditionally, wives wouldn't come to the casinos in hoards, or as often if they didn't have their husbands with them. As modern days develop, that isn't as strong of an argument now. No need for daddy day-care when women come to the casinos more on their own now than they used to. Aside from the novelty of having poker in a well rounded gambling establishment, poker should be removed from every casino.
 
Lovejoyz said:
.....Poker is a money pit loser for casinos. The rake isn't enough to keep it afloat. Free drinks, free food buffets, poker players are some of the most needy people in the casino, and they make the property the least amount of money.......Aside from the novelty of having poker in a well rounded gambling establishment, poker should be removed from every casino.
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Are you in Casino management? Lol, sounds like you pretty much hate everything about poker
 
Nanook said:
Think about it, what other forms of poker do you ever see in movies or on TV other than NL?
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I was just going to jokingly point out that when Kramer was hosting a game, it sounded like they were playing stud.
Then I remembered that Seinfeld was in the 1990s.
Ugh
 
upNdown said:
I was just going to jokingly point out that when Kramer was hosting a game, it sounded like they were playing stud.
Then I remembered that Seinfeld was in the 1990s.
Ugh
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Speaking of the 90s, remember that time Urkel made four 10s? (Yes this was also Stud.)


And don't feel too bad about Steve slowrolling there, Murtah did it to him earlier in the episode.

 
Lovejoyz said:
Aside from the novelty of having poker in a well rounded gambling establishment, poker should be removed from every casino.
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Yeah but that’s only because casinos can make so much more money in other ways - it says nothing about the profitability of poker.
Christ, the NH charity poker rooms were thriving for years, and they had to give like 30% of their profits to charity or something. Yeah, the rakes were generally a touch higher, but mostly the only difference between poker there and in a casino was no free drinks.
Back to the point. If states would just issue poker-only licenses either in addition to or as an alternative to full gaming licenses, those establishments would profit biggly.
 
Just to add a report to this thread, Diamond Jo's in North Iowa (just over the border from Minnesota on I-35) gave up it's poker during the pandemic. Also Iowa legalized sports betting so I think that's how that space is now used. But in truth I haven't been in there since around 2017 or so.
 
A lot of poker rooms have been lost to sports books.

They moved the Arena Poker Room here at Talking Stick in Scottsdale to a permanent tent (rigid sides, feels like a building inside). The stated purpose is to put a sportsbook in the old space and move the poker room to a larger area for tournaments — but really, who knows.
 
bergs said:
****Emphasis added*****

The poker boom is over. Thanks Obama (and you GTO hoodie wearing math solver weenies that sucked the fun out of holdem).
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^^^^^^^^This. So much this.

And I still can't get my group to play any other game. Sigh.
 
I dodged COVID for 2.5 years, then made the mistake of playing for nine hours at an upstate New York casino. Maybe it’s for the best.
 

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