Reside poker has thrived for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic pressured casinos to shutter quickly in 2020. Poker gamers had pent-up power to play, and within the years since, they’ve flooded poker rooms.
However apparently, not all poker rooms in Las Vegas have been drowning in money. On Wednesday, Vegas insider Jennifer “VegasStarfish” Homosexual posted on X that the Sahara Las Vegas poker site will shut on November 16.
Key Highlights
- The Sahara Las Vegas poker site will shut on November 16.
- It’s a small room with simply seven tables, however is understood for its high-level facilities.
- After the closure, there’ll solely be 17 poker rooms in Las Vegas.
Sahara Poker Room Closing in November
Homosexual, who was as soon as a poker supervisor for MGM Resorts Worldwide, didn’t present a cause for the closure, although in fact, she won’t know any specifics.
The Sahara’s poker site opened on Valentine’s Day 2020, which was extraordinarily unlucky timing because it was solely about a month earlier than casinos needed to shut due to the pandemic.
It’s a small however luxurious room. It solely has seven tables, however boasts a 16×9-foot LED video wall and a number of tv screens all through. Each seat has charging ports and meals and beverage service is out there tableside.
Sahara poker site evaluations are usually optimistic; it will get 4 out of 5 stars (“chips” if we’re being utterly correct) on PokerAtlas.com. Adverse evaluations are inclined to revolve across the lack of exercise.
Poker Rooms Are Not Very Worthwhile
And that’s most likely why the poker site is closing. It possible doesn’t get sufficient site visitors to be price retaining round anymore.
Except for hand payouts on massive wins and the occasional restore, slot machines don’t want human administration.
Even when all seven tables had been full, poker rooms are sometimes the least worthwhile gaming a part of a on line casino. A on line casino might set up dozens of slot machines in the identical house and earn more money.
Whereas poker rooms require sellers, a supervisor, cocktail servers, and different employees, slot machines require nothing however electrical energy. Except for hand payouts on massive wins and the occasional restore, slot machines don’t want human administration.
Ignoring bills, poker rooms sometimes generate much less income than different on line casino video games. Although the home by no means loses in a poker recreation, the rake is often a sluggish trickle in comparison with the money circulate from desk video games and gaming machines.
Pandemic, Black Friday Harm Las Vegas Poker
Whereas dwell poker has been very talked-about over the previous couple of years, many Las Vegas poker rooms didn’t survive the 2020 pandemic on line casino closures.
In accordance with VegasAdvantage.com, there have been 31 poker rooms in Las Vegas earlier than the pandemic. Twenty reopened, however there will probably be simply 17 poker rooms remaining after Sahara closes.
The most recent ones embody Resorts World in June 2021 and Mandalay Bay in July 2021.
However Planet Hollywood closed its fashionable poker site only a couple weeks earlier than Mandalay Bay’s opened. Silver Sevens, simply off the Strip, closed its poker site the next month.
In September 2021, the Flamingo shut down its long-standing poker site. Caesars Palace nonetheless technically has a poker site, however it’s quickly closed.
Earlier than the pandemic, the occasion that hit Las Vegas poker rooms the toughest was the US authorities crackdown on on-line poker, culminating on April 15, 2011, greatest generally known as “Black Friday” within the poker world.
Inside a 12 months and a half of Black Friday, Ellis Island, Fitzgeralds (which is now The D), Jokers Wild, O’Sheas, Silverton, and Tropicana all shuttered their poker rooms. With US poker gamers unable to play on-line, curiosity in dwell poker waned.
5 extra poker rooms closed in 2013: Invoice’s Gamblin’ Corridor, Riviera, M Resort, Circus Circus, and El Cortez. Even the poker site on the Palms, which was as soon as a well-liked venue for poker tv exhibits, closed in 2014.
Sources
https://x.com/vegasstarfish/standing/1849231692336353284
https://www.pokeratlas.com/poker-room/sahara-las-vegas
https://vegasadvantage.com/open-las-vegas-poker-rooms/
https://vegasadvantage.com/open-las-vegas-poker-rooms/closed/
