With the poker room's return to the casinos of Las Vegas and other gambling hotspots across the U.S., it comes as something of a surprise that Illinois' casinos are not following suit. Despite the nation-wide poker craze that has taken hold of North America, only two of Illinois' four casinos provide Texas Hold'em, one of which closes poker its poker tables on the weekend.

Illinois casinos are shirking the trend, because they say that despite the game's popularity, it's just not profitable. Whereas in other games such as blackjack and slots, players compete against the house, thus bringing the house a hefty sum of the profits, in poker, players contend with one another. This means that the house makes a relatively insignificant cut from wagers, which translates into at most $6 per hand for Illinois casinos. Compared from what the cut that goes to the house from slot machines, poker is practically charity.

Illinois is also the only state in the U.S. that limits the number of gambling stations to exist in any single casino. With a maximum of 1,200 gambling positions allowed per casino, in order to install poker tables, casinos would have to elimination positions hosting more profitable games.

Source:  Poker777 Staff

Sunday, 30 January 2005