Las Vegas Casinos Cashing In On Poker Boom

Since the poker boom started in 2003, Poker traffic in Nevada has more than doubled and is now a serious money generator for the state. Nevada has 106 poker rooms which in 2008 produced $155.7 million in revenue which outweighed the $136 million generated from sports books and $80 million from race books.
The economic downturn in 2008 affected all gaming activity but poker seemed to have suffered less with revenue down 4.6% in Nevada in contrast to a 9.7% drop across the Nevada gaming industry as a whole.
Poker rooms have always been a feature of Las Vegas casinos, but during the 1990’s they found it increasingly harder to match up to the profits generated from slots, roulette, blackjack and other staples of the casino industry and so began to decline.
Nowadays, however, poker is enjoying a resurgence in popularity in Las Vegas casinos with many organising up to three tournaments a day and live play always available. Such is the demand and competition for poker custom that casinos regularly offer a range of enticements for players such as high hand awards, bad beat bonuses, free meals and snacks, point bonus schemes and free rolls.
Interestingly, the American Gaming Association (AGA) produced a survey recently which noted that 7% of people reported poker as their favourite casino game with craps and roulette only receiving 3% of votes each. Slots and blackjack were still the most popular casino games with 62% and 21% of the votes respectively.
The finding of the AGA report clearly demonstrates the increasing popularity of poker in the US with around 11% of Americans claiming to have played poker live or online which equates  to  around 20 million playing online and 15 million playing live games. Incredibly, the figures would probably have been much higher if not for the strict rules governing poker which are enforced by the US government.