The Associated Press news agency carried an interesting report over the weekend claiming that US land casinos are reducing their poker table facilities in line with the waning popularity of the game, especially following the 2011 enforcement actions against online poker operators
The report notes that on the Las Vegas Strip alone there has been an almost 25 percent reduction in tables over the past decade. Apparently some operators have reduced the size of their poker rooms, whilst others have done away with them entirely.
David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, told AP: “Casinos added more tables in response to popularity, and once it became less popular, they took away the tables,” opining that the peak of the poker boom was in 2007.
He said that in 2002 casinos had 144 tables and made $30 million from the game. Five years later, casinos had more than tripled their poker revenue to $97 million with 405 tables.
Last year, the game netted them only $78 million after the number of tables decreased to 320….and the situation is similar aross Nevada; casinos had 907 tables and made $168 million in 2007, but by last year, they took in $118 million from 661 tables.