otherwise interesting thread morphs to tipping thread.

I'm not a generous tipper. I usually don't tip if I just take down blinds or cbet and take down a HU tiny pot. I always tip if the pot is bigger or if I take down blinds/win multiple tiny pots without tipping. If the pot is big I tip more than $1. If I like the dealer, the threshold for tipping goes down and vice versa. I NEVER tip more than $5 and I can probably count on one hand the total number of times I've tipped a that much over the last 2000 hours. The dealers know that I'm there to make money just like they are and I've yet to find a dealer that hates me because of that.

Anyways back on topic, if jackpots are so important for the longevity of the game, why do places without them like Aria, Bellagio, Wynn and Caesar's generally not have trouble filling their tables during evenings? IMO it's more the quality and reputation of the room that brings people in. Jackpots are like a used car salesman trying really hard to make a bad car look good.

Why do you think the dealer is there?

I'm not sure ensuring poker is like a casino where 90% of customers lose is not it's inevitability. Without new money coming in, the cuts have to come from somewhere, most likely winning players no their own pocket books!

I agree. Start tipping the dealers $5 a hand.

Hey! another poker is dead thread! great

but it really isnt

No, crony capitalist crooks and politicians like Sheldon Adelson, Trump, etc. are single handedly destroying (online) poker.

Like another poster said this is not the case in California or Florida or Indian preserves which comprises most the casinos outside Nevada/jersey. (I think maryland returns 100% like Nevada fwiw)

It also has blurred lines at what “returned to player pool” is in a lot of instances. I think one casino used it to fund their progressive blackjack jackpot (in Atlantic City I think?) but could be mistaken. Chester harrahs mgm national harbor and multiple other casinos in Florida have used it to fulfill overlays on tournaments that didn’t reach guarantees.

I really don’t see how people could think other people managing their money when the casinos have no incentive to protect the money is a good idea when there are too many instances of mismanagement to count (in all life in general and especially business more then something small like this)

Jackpots are in effect 'equity' which is hard to realize, and I think that is what OP and others are really getting at.

Otherwise jackpots are by definition a zero sum game. Whatever the poker economy pays into the thing is exactly what the jackpot pays right back out... so I don't understand what the problem is here?

Another thing I see few people here discussing is that table shares are a not-insignificant part of the 'realizing of equity' concept I just described. Even if most of have never won the lion's share of a BBJ, most of us probably have enjoyed at least a table share.

Also please don't tell me that casual recs who luckbox into one of these BBJ are simply removing bushels full of money from the poker economy. Jackpots are a time honored tradition which is pretty much the foundation of Vegas. I have never heard anyone from any gambling environment EVER talk about how paying out jackpots to transient gamblers was a Vegas killer because it removed money from the economy by taking money from locals. It's actually quite the opposite. It's just a statistical reality that they pay it back and much much more...

Maybe some people are arguing that jackpots are important, but I think most (including OP) are actually arguing that it is destructive.

I wonder if the casino would ever tell you what they are really raking the jackpot pools. if they didn't rake it at all it would be a win win for everyone, they would get more players and good players would get to participate in an ev neutral environment, but the casinos will find a way to cannibalize their own audience

It's definitely raked. "Admin fees". Should be legally required to be transparent about that stuff.

I was in LA two years ago for first time...i was shocked at that...and confused

doubt the "guy" that won it twice or the bots playing there are complaining.