When you think of a classic Las Vegas casino scene, I bet you envision people cheering as someone in their group throws dice on a craps table. Or maybe they’re yelling for joy or groaning in agony as the ball stops on red or black.
The scene around a poker table is almost always way more subdued.
So while poker has always held a special place in the city’s gambling mythology — think smoky back rooms, stone-faced players and life-changing stacks of chips — it’s not quite as, shall we say, sexy as some of the other games.
💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter💰💵
But for casino operators, it’s the bottom line that’s motivating change.
While poker remains popular with a loyal base of players, it doesn’t generate nearly the revenue that slot machines and table games like roulette and craps do.
As a result, many casinos have spent the past decade quietly downsizing or eliminating poker rooms altogether. Now, a new trend is emerging: relocating poker rooms off the main casino floor where there is less foot traffic and the real estate isn’t quite as prime.
This shift reflects a larger movement within the gaming industry, where space once reserved for poker is being replaced with “Dragon Link,” “Sex and the City” or “Wheel of Fortune” slots, or with electronic table games.
Slots and table games don’t require staff to run or even monitor and they make money for the house more consistently.
But rather than scrapping poker altogether, some casinos are designing rooms that cater to the diehard poker players who don’t seem to care whether or not they’re playing in the main room. It’s a move that seems to balance tradition with the bottom line.
Caesars joins a trend started by The Venetian
Following the lead of The Venetian, which relocated its poker room to the Grand Canal Shoppes last August, Caesars Entertainment is reopening poker rooms at both Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood, but not where casual casino-goers might expect to find them.
At Caesars Palace, the new poker room opened May 16 inside the Appian Way Shops, a retail corridor removed from the main gaming floor. It’s located near Gordon Ramsay’s Pub & Grill and the Statue of David — about a five-minute walk from the casino’s center. The space is cozy — about half the size of previous locations — with only eight tables. If the demand is strong, however, there is space to expand.
Related: Las Vegas Strip casinos try to combat a troubling trend
This will be the third location for Caesars’ poker room. The first iteration held 63 tables before closing in 2014 to make way for what became the Omnia nightclub. Then, a smaller version reopened near the Colosseum and lasted until August 2024. At the time, Caesars said the closure was temporary and tied to high-limit slot renovations, but the area was eventually filled with lower-limit machines.
More on travel:
- U.S. government issues serious warning for cruise passengers
- Delta Air Lines makes a baggage change that travelers will like
- United Airlines passenger incident triggers quick response
Meanwhile, Planet Hollywood, another Caesars property, also brought back poker this spring, after shuttering its original room in 2021. The new space is located in the former London Club, a mezzanine-level space across from the property’s wedding chapel, according to a report on Casino.org. The new room includes 23 tables, with 12 set aside for cash games. That’s more than double the original poker room’s size. The new space also offers sweeping views of the main casino’s so-called Pleasure Pit.
Though Caesars hasn’t said much about the moves publicly, the relocations appear to be strategic, allowing the company to maintain poker offerings without sacrificing valuable casino real estate.
Las Vegas’ gambling landscape is ever-changing
The poker boom of the early 2000s, lit by televised tournaments, amateur legends like Chris Moneymaker, and star-studded movies like “Ocean’s 11,” sparked a surge of dedicated poker rooms across Las Vegas.
But not everyone can get a poker lesson from Brad Pitt so as interest cooled and revenue failed to keep pace with other forms of gaming, many of those rooms quietly disappeared.
Related: Las Vegas Strip resort casinos add outrageous ‘new’ fee
Since 2012, roughly 40 Las Vegas poker rooms have permanently closed, leaving only 17 today. The most recent casualty: the poker room at the Sahara, which was replaced by slot machines in late 2024.
Like everyone else in business, casino operators are guided by data, and math favors slot machines. Poker earns the house around 10% of each pot up to $6 — called “the rake” — and is labor-intensive. Complicating things even more, any rake relies on player turnout. Slot machines run 24/7, on the other hand, require no dealers and deliver high margins. One casino worker can monitor dozens of machines at once.
Still, poker maintains a loyal following, particularly among skilled players who view it as a game of strategy rather than luck. By relocating rooms to quieter spaces, casinos like Caesars are preserving the tradition while maximizing profitability.
There’s a good chance that Vegas will continue to evolve since the odds are always in its favor.
Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast
