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Originally Posted by HomeStar
Casinos don't really care what kind of poker is running because it's a loss leader and more about drawing people in to spend/lose money in other parts of the casino. If they feel like adding a tourney series is going to get people in the door, that could move them to do so. You're right that staffing a big issue, though.
I think viewing poker as a loss leader is a mistake many make. Plus many poker players only play poker or bet sports or ponies so aren't feeding the table games or slots much. The casino probably views poker more like it diverts players from other games once they're there. And it does to some degree. I'd argue that the sports book is their big loss leader, at least most of the year. That's why the Borgata frequently hosts parties/events there on some nights--making use of that real estate.
Poker makes them money, just not a much per square foot as other games. Their best money maker per square foot (excluding whales, who make them the most at whatever they play) is slots. But each slot machine a casino adds makes a little less than the previous one (as Sklansky explained decades ago). If you walk around Borgata on a Saturday night you'll see many slot machines not in use, and I'm not referring to the ones closed because of COVID. They already know their saturation point for each of their games and I suspect they operate at that point, as do other casinos. That's why most small casinos don't have a poker room--more money in slots. There are also a slew of table games the Borgata never open and don't even keep chips in the trays (along the row leading to Bread & Butter and Bobby Flay from the poker room. So, with respect to the Borgata, if they closed the poker room they really couldn't generate more income from gaming, although maybe they could adding another restaurant. Perhaps in the future if this stadium gaming thing attracts new customers without draining the other games they'll need to find additional room somewhere else. But the poker room is in a part of the casino that gets less foot traffic.
The Borgata was smarter than other casinos in AC about 12 years ago during the great recession when it was giving free/cheap rooms to all it's players, including poker players. That kept them coming to the Borgata and kept their restaurants and other shops from going under. Once your restaurants start closing, your casino and hotel are in deep trouble as nobody will come. Everybody has to eat and nobody wants to wait 2 hours for a seat in an overcrowded restaurant, or travel off site. And the casino doesn't want their players off the casino floor longer than necessary. Poker players feed other businesses in the casino besides gaming, which help keep them operating.
If the casinos weren't making money off poker players, they wouldn't give them comps. They're not taking a loss from poker players. But they do make less money from them, so they give them lower comps.