Live poker has thrived since the COVID-19 pandemic forced casinos to shutter temporarily in 2020. Poker players had pent-up energy to play, and in the years since, they have flooded poker rooms.
But apparently, not all poker rooms in Las Vegas have been drowning in cash. On Wednesday, Vegas insider Jennifer “VegasStarfish” Gay posted on X that the Sahara Las Vegas poker room will close on November 16.
Key Highlights
- The Sahara Las Vegas poker room will close on November 16.
- It is a small room with just seven tables, but is known for its high-level amenities.
- After the closure, there will only be 17 poker rooms in Las Vegas.
Sahara Poker Room Closing in November
Gay, who was once a poker manager for MGM Resorts International, did not provide a reason for the closure, though of course, she might not know any specifics.
The Sahara’s poker room opened on Valentine’s Day 2020, which was extremely unfortunate timing as it was only about a month before casinos had to close because of the pandemic.
It is a small but luxurious room. It only has seven tables, but boasts a 16×9-foot LED video wall and multiple television screens throughout. Every seat has charging ports and food and beverage service is available tableside.
Sahara poker room reviews are generally positive; it gets four out of five stars (“chips” if we’re being completely accurate) on PokerAtlas.com. Negative reviews tend to revolve around the lack of activity.
Poker Rooms Are Not Very Profitable
And that is probably why the poker room is closing. It likely does not get enough traffic to be worth keeping around anymore.
Aside from hand payouts on large wins and the occasional repair, slot machines do not need human management.
Even if all seven tables were full, poker rooms are typically the least profitable gaming part of a casino. A casino could install dozens of slot machines in the same space and make more money.
Whereas poker rooms require dealers, a manager, cocktail servers, and other staff, slot machines require nothing but electricity. Aside from hand payouts on large wins and the occasional repair, slot machines do not need human management.
Ignoring expenses, poker rooms typically generate less revenue than other casino games. Though the house never loses in a poker game, the rake is usually a slow trickle compared to the cash flow from table games and gaming machines.
Pandemic, Black Friday Hurt Las Vegas Poker
While live poker has been very popular over the last few years, many Las Vegas poker rooms did not survive the 2020 pandemic casino closures.
According to VegasAdvantage.com, there were 31 poker rooms in Las Vegas before the pandemic. Twenty reopened, but there will be just 17 poker rooms remaining after Sahara closes.
The newest ones include Resorts World in June 2021 and Mandalay Bay in July 2021.
But Planet Hollywood closed its popular poker room just a couple weeks before Mandalay Bay’s opened. Silver Sevens, just off the Strip, closed its poker room the following month.
In September 2021, the Flamingo shut down its long-standing poker room. Caesars Palace still technically has a poker room, but it is temporarily closed.
Before the pandemic, the event that hit Las Vegas poker rooms the hardest was the US government crackdown on online poker, culminating on April 15, 2011, best known as “Black Friday” in the poker world.
Within a year 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 players unable to play online, interest in live poker waned.
Five more poker rooms closed in 2013: Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, Riviera, M Resort, Circus Circus, and El Cortez. Even the poker room at the Palms, which was once a popular venue for poker television shows, closed in 2014.
Sources
https://x.com/vegasstarfish/status/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/
