Casinos without tables… Why all the outrage?
Gambling Insider contributor Paul Sculpher tickets in with his two cents on Golden Gate's recent decision to remove all table games. Despite industry outrage, he argues profit will always outweight tradition for casino owners.
Recently the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino in Downtown Las Vegas announced it was going to do away with all table gaming and switch purely to a machine-based offering – with slots and presumably ETGs serving as the only source of gaming.
Predictably this has caused a bit of a furore within the casino business, with many proclaiming it to be the beginning of the end for table games.
There’s an interesting comparison in the UK market – there have been a couple of UK casino licensees that trade without any table gaming. What you end up with is basically a higher-stakes arcade with a bar, but it would an unwise move to ridicule such an offer.
The arcade/adult gaming centre business in the UK is an astonishingly profitable one, and ownership are in business to make money, not to respect the customs of the past.
When I heard about Golden Gate, I instantly thought of Casino Royale, the old table-less soldier of a casino mid-Strip tucked away opposite the old Mirage site (the remains of which remind me: nothing lasts forever).
Maybe it’s the social media users I tend to read – being a casino nerd – but the level of outrage does seem a little overdone to me
Casino Royale has long been a favourite of ours (possibly helped by the fact it seems to have slots set to 105% payout for us). It’s small, tight and frankly fairly crappy (views of the author here, not the publication!), but we always have a good time there – and in a world where you’re surrounded by $26 beers and cocktails that need a mortgage, their cheaper offering has a lot of appeal. I’m an occasional table games player, but I don’t miss them at all in that place.
I completely get that, for some people, casinos aren’t casinos unless they have tables, but not everyone thinks that way. The economics of table games are also tough to stack up – a full $10 blackjack table doesn’t generate anything material in terms of net profit – and you’ll find plenty of people who’ll tell you that the latest generation to reach gambling’s legal age aren’t as keen on human interaction as their elders.
Maybe it’s the social media users I tend to read – being a casino nerd – but the level of outrage does seem a little overdone to me. Table games don’t have a divine right to exist and, if operators can make more money through another route, that’s their prerogative.
In a world where money rules, operators will pick their own road… ownership are in business to make money, not to respect the customs of the past
The wise casino person keeps an eye on the future; and if this is a harbinger of doom for tables, moaning about it isn’t going to be anywhere near as effective as preparing for it.
That said, one feels there will always be a market for table games at some level – but I’ve felt for a long time that, given the rising costs of staff in most parts of the world, table gaming is going to be increasingly a rich person’s option.
TITO (Ticket in ticket out) on slots had many people telling the world the end was nigh, but no casino in their right mind would go back to coins now.
In a world where money rules, operators will pick their own road. Table-free casinos might be the future, or they might end up a rarity, but one thing is for sure – no casino owner cares about tradition over profit.
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