Las Vegas Poker Rooms Continue Steady Decline

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Poker rooms situated along the Las Vegas Strip have been steadily declining over the past few years, with the latest venue to shut shop being the Monte Carlo poker room. The eight-table poker room now joins a list of recently shuttered venues that includes the Palms, M Resort, Circus Circus and Tropicana.

The Monte Carlo poker room, located inside the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, was a low-stakes poker room which dealt its first hand back in 1996. The casino is currently undergoing refurbishment before being renamed Park MGM, and there appears to be no room for the poker venue when it eventually reopens.

The news has been greeted with a measure of sadness by some of the poker room’s loyal customers who have enjoyed frequenting the property over the years. One such person is Ben Abrahams, a 33-year old poker grinder originally from Boston, who reminiscing about Monte Carlo explained:

“I played almost 250 hours there last year. I’m a little disappointed its closing. I liked the room. It’s cozy, solely dedicated to poker, and the décor is cool. I liked that it was a stand-alone room. Most poker rooms in Vegas now aren’t really rooms. They’re just a group of tables in the middle of the casino. Monte Carlo was different.”

Back in 2007, the Strip boasted 26 poker rooms and 396 tables, but this year that number has now fallen to 19 rooms and less than 270 tables. Likewise, the Strip’s poker rake has dropped from $97.1 million in 2007, to just $77.1 million almost a decade later.

On the positive side, other poker rooms located along the Las Vegas Strip have likely seen an uptick in their business, including ones found at the Aria, Bellagio, and Venetian. Furthermore, poker rooms have continued to spring up across the US, including in such states as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, while California is believed to now feature more than 1,000 poker tables, including at such venues as the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Bay 101, and Thunder Valley.