Do you know how many tables? And what 1/2, 2/5...

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I think a significant number of players like myself from MA will head to Nashua. Just as easy to head up Rte 3 instead of 93, especially if the environment is safer up there.

Sounds like the Wild West. Yikes! I wish you luck.

I've lived in Salem for 18 years and I do love it here, but Salem business is a tough nut to crack.
A reason I chose this site is mainly because it is NOT on Rte 28. I feel the town fears that if they say yes to one on Rte 28, they may have to say yes to all, all defined as-- how ever many keep coming even after us three. Example is mattress stores, drive down Rte 28 and you will see about six.
Because I was on the same variance request meeting, I think I got lumped in. Time will tell.
Regarding safety, i believe my area is perfectly safe. If I am lucky enough to open I feel everyone will feel the same way. I also believe a daily police detail is mandatory no matter the location. It is at least mandatory at mine.

I know who is running the Nashua location, good team. If Puckster and I open, we will have to exceed expectations. Especially if traveling Rte 3 is no big deal to a lot of players.

Chip Chaser...

1. To say your site won't add traffic to Rte 28 is a stretch at best. Where do you think people will be coming from? (Hint the busiest part of 28.) That said, I think the traffic argument for all three sites is ridiculous. Poker rooms don't generate a heavy flow. It's sporadic at best. Take the opening of Foxwoods 25 years ago as an example. Thousands of people had no problem at all driving right in via a double lane road. It's a non issue.

2. Your mattress store example was addressed by the board in the meeting. If you remember they were actually concerned about your site, and it changing an industrial zone to an entertainment district. In particular they were concerned since you are only proposing partial use of a building, did that mean a vote for your site was a vote for everyone else in the building to be approved. It was determined each site, even in the same building, would need a variance.

3. Safety. Any site can become safe with well lit parking lots, security and police presence. Your proposed site has some hurdles (already mentioned) others don't, but can be addressed.

Perhaps you could share some of your plans for the room. Puck has described his room as Borgata North. This implies a high-end quality room. New buildout and nice amenities. Do you have similar plans?

I think growth of poker in New Hampshire is great. I would love for it to evolve past the current image. The image of NH poker started with wondering if it was even legal. Rooms opened in the back of Elk lodges and cheap hotel conference rooms. It evolved slightly to specific rooms and Rockingham, but it still none were high end. If you asked any non-player today most NH citizens wouldn't no whether its legal or where to play. It still has somewhat of an underground feel to it. The comments by the board regarding gambling make this a fact, not opinion.

The new no-limit laws have presented an opportunity for investors like yourself and Puck to take a chance in furthering the development of this industry in NH. I have been biased towards Puck's site because it represents the type of image I would like poker in NH to move towards. (Hopefully he's telling the truth because I don't know him. Although I must have played with him.)

Your site thus far has the image of another poker room being opened in a warehouse type atmosphere hidden from public. It gives the image that this type of activity should be kept away from other businesses. Please feel free to share a different vision.

The traffic argument for any of the 3 room is rediculos. The amount of patrons and the traffic counts, vehical cycles, and gradual entry/departure cycles for all three rooms is so tiny, it would have zero impact on any of the rooms. I have had traffic impact studies done for other projects, the data is amazing and the way they calculate impact is all fact based. It's great stuff, and even when municipalities mandate peer review, none of it changes, because it's all facts based.

If anyone, including the ZBA members have ever read a traffic impact study, on such small proposed developments, the only reason they would bring traffic up would be to be an obstructionist. Even the planning Board is wasting everyone's time and money requiring ANY of the 3 rooms or any small business have them done.

* cost is about $5000.

The impact on traffic, even at the Coke plant, is ZERO.

..... The traffic count on RT 28 is 44000 cpd. If adding 1-300 trips per day is going to choke down that road, a moratorium on any development or redevelopment on 28 would need to be immediately implemented.

But wait, it gets better:

A traffic study is done by a professional engineer licensed and certified in that discipline.

It takes 45-60 days to complete.

The data and report is submitted to the boards. The board, highly suspicious of the results, mandates a traffic consultant be hired to do peer review. The board administrator then gets 3 bids for the peer review and to represent the board. Then it gets better: the applicant needs to pay for this review and deposit the funds with the municipality before work commences. It takes 30 days to complete the peer review.

Meanwhile, there are only, maybe 5-6 people within a hundred mile radias that are traffic engineers; and they all know each other and are friends. They all belong to the same National registration and associations for traffic engineers and they go to the annual meetings togather. They all have each other's cell and emails. They are working off data facts.

So you have a peer review ordered in Salem. John is the engineer and Bill is peer review. There is another project in Manchester, and Bill is the engineer. Can anyone guess who the peer review person is?

So...... You pay for an engineer, then you get to pay for peer review...... And both guys already have 90% of data before they started....

..... Then the meeting comes..... And both engineers are there. The peer review guy does all the talking and tells the board he agrees with 99% of the report and the development will have no impact.

Then the good part happens. The money is gone, the experts have spoken, and Jane, the board member, says; I don't agree with your report.... I drove over there and it was hard to exit. Bill, owner of a tree service concurs..... I've seen cars going in and out if there.....

For the next 15 minutes, a pretty heated argument breaks out.... Between the board members AND the engineer hired to represent them...

The members decide BOTH engineers are wrong and they know better

How often does this happen ????? 100% of the time....., Lololololololololololololololololoooloololololol. All you can do is laugh

sidebar: all of my comments on traffic are about "volume of traffic, and access" only...

here are the minutes. I'll have a link up on my website later if you can;t get it from here. great stuff and bathroom or poker table reading

townofsalemnh.org/sites/salemnh/files/minutes/minutes-file/zba_pdf_09-28-2016_draft.pdf


just add www at the front and u got it..enjoy

Again everything I heard is third hand on Boston Billiards. I was told by a dealer at another room they plan to open in the back right of the room, which maybe holds 10 tables if I was guessing. However I also heard they were building out 35,000 square feet in the space next to them, with the intent of that being a large room modelled after the Players Club in Canada.

Hope the second part is true.

FYI: Playground is beautiful, but did not open as big as it is today. IIRC, it was about a 20 table room when it opened, with the tournament room next door only opening several years later.

The only flaw PG had when it opened was that it was dark. What they nailed right from the get go was: service, food, chairs, competent dealers and game selection (games that the players wanted).

Now that I think of it, the Kahnawake poker scene was very similar to what NH looks like now: many little rooms, each with a little niche. PG benefited from the lessons of the rooms before them. Also, they spent crazy $$$ marketing. The paid sponsorship to Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, Mike "timex" McDonald all to use their likeness in their advertising.

I would love a room of that caliber in NH, but I'll take a safe and clean room, with competent staff. PG owners had a lot of ambition...

Sure, here is some info:
1st—naturally, I bought all the chairs from The Rock! I beat everyone to that score!.....wait….that was a nightmare I had(let me check my garage)….YUP, just a nightmare.

When you walk in, on the right side, the bar will have about 12 bar stools with a full kitchen behind it. The left side will have casual seating and some offices will run down the left wall into the security room and then the cage.
The front area will have its own look and carpet.

The poker room will have a check in/reception area at entrance. A police detail area will be close to here but against the offices.
We will have open-loft style ceilings with different lighting to handle ambiance and functionality. The room décor will be contemporary with the right amount of traditional touches.

Gaming specific—Everything will be new. Roulette wheels(2) will hopefully have the previous-dice-rolls readerboard but I have not priced it yet to confirm. We will have typical table games as well but no craps. If through lobbying etc we can one day up the standard limit bets to $5/$10, a craps table will happen.

Poker Tables—So far we like a specific company but we are looking for a smaller company to give them a good size order and help them out. No auto-shufflers and no player card swipe at the tables—and I am almost 100% certain these will not be anywhere in NH. We believe USB ports will happen though! Regarding large, built in cup-holders, we want them. We also want a simple system to instantly signify the need for waitstaff. In 2016+, the players should not have to wait for what they want! Side-tables for eating will be solid w/4 wheel-legs. An affordable and noticeable upgrade.

Chairs—We will spend the money here. It only makes sense.

Food- The more places I am visiting the more simple but quality foods I am seeing. We will jump in here. Quality Soups and Sandwiches is the starting point. Fresh Cobb, Chef, Caesar and other Salads with tasty dressing options will happen. The players want it so we will likely have fryolators and all the tasty greasy yummy stuff that goes with it. Pizza is likely as well. Quick eats.

Team—(employees, management and ownership) a strong suit for us -high standards will be expected and delivered here. Constant training, constant upgrading will be ongoing. No one will top us here, in my opinion they can’t.

Charities—A direct focus on the Salem community as that is where the business is and it just makes sense to us Salem is who should be the primary benefactor.

Hope this helps some.

Any treadmills?


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Poker would be AWESOME if all 50 states in America allowed for free capitalism, and allowed entrepreneurs to open "Poker Rooms" like Playground. Be so nice to not have to rely on Casino's who place Poker at the absolute bottom rung of anything they care about - or "Charity" gimmicks that are just another layer of Rake to most players.

Don't care what it is, I root for the Puckster!

He's a smart, interesting guy from the few times we've played and chatted and I gotta believe a project he's involved in has a better chance of success than if he wasn't involved.

What would be the timeframe for any of these rooms to get (hopefully)
approved via appeal?

Thank you for the kind words!

....... Btw.... For those that do not know him.... MacauBound is one of the best mixed game players in the country. A gentleman and true ambassador of the game.

Remember what they said in the Money Pit "two weeks". That will not be the case here. As with most projects, the buildout is the easiest and fastest part of the process.

Regulatory filings, public notice, and appeal periods add lots of time to everything. ZBA appeal prob would not happen for 45-60 days min...then Planning board....... All with more fling and public notices and appeal periods.

Based on how it's gone so far, there's not much urgency apparent at the local gov level.

Read the minutes of the meeting at the link I posted, or from the link on Cheers web page. Pretty astonishing comments about all of the rooms. Lol

The traffic issue in Salem will be more than offset by the amount of traffic lost from Horse simulcast no longer existing in Salem.

Here's how screwed up it is..... typical discussion at these boards...

Mrs. Harvey said, regarding the signs, if you have a flashing at the crosswalk, you don’t need two. Just at the crosswalk.

Kurt Meisner, from Meisner Brem Corporation, said regarding the location of the sidewalk, Mr. Pernaw discussed it and said, his preference was the south side of the road.

He is the town’s traffic consultant, so if you force us to put it on the north side of the road, you are going against the advice of the town’s traffic consultant. He is one you hire to tell you what is the best thing to do.

Mr. Pernaw is an expert and we have an expert.

We sat down with town staff and that’s what everyone agreed to. We put a lot of work and effort into it and we acquiesced to what the town wanted and came up with a plan.

Now the board wants us to do what they want, not what the staff wants.

He understands that you are the ones who vote, but we put a lot of time and effort into the meeting with everyone from the town. There were 15 people in that meeting and only 3 from the developer.

He finds it almost incomprehensible, with all the improvements we are making and all the things we acquiesced to, we will throw out the window and go against the town’s traffic consultant. It feels wrong

How the F did I do this crazy chit for 34 years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This sounds "arbitrary and capricious" to me.....

the crazy thing is I typed that paragraph not based on any specific hearing, then today, I'm reading minutes on another issue not related to me and find exactly the type of crazy stuff that that goes on every night...

At another hearing in another community Wed night, we presented verbatim documents stamped by a professional engineer and approved on an exact same situation.... the board and their non-professional engineer rejected the exact same thing they approved a mile down the road.... my wife has attended meeting for the first time(s) the last several months... She keeps asking.... how can they.... lololol

gov wheels grinding the F out of everyone

my guess is never

sounds good.
Please don't skimp on lighting. nothing worse than when you're not sure if you have the 8 of spades or 9 of clubs.

All variances are very difficult to get, use variances even harder. If the process was easy, everyone would be doing it...