Date: 06/17/1998
From: Jim Geary
Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker
Subject: Poker Economies of Scale - was Re: Poker vs Slots-A business decision
On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Jeffrey B. Siegal wrote: > > someone else wrote: > > And most Vegas poker rooms are pretty pathetic affairs (Luxor/Excalibur > > et. al.), with the majority of tables empty even at peak times. > > This is true. The fact is that poker benefits from an economy of scale. People > like to play where there are a variety of games, and several games going at the same > limit means less waiting. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to have small poker > rooms with a handful of tables scattered all around town, and that's the way the > market is going. I've thought about this a bit and I agree but it brings up an interesting paradox. Is it better to have just one big room in a metropolitan area? The upside is that you'll always efficiently meet the general population's demand for games, so you won't have diffusion that hurts games in general. The downside is of course the one casino will start feeling its monopolistic oats. In Phoenix, we used to have two casinos sixty miles apart, both in a sort of nowhere relative to most of the population. Then a big casino opened up that was actually near a population center. All the action now concentrates there for the games I usually play (20-40 & 30-60). Friday, a new casino is going to open up at an even better location. But I wonder: is this going to be good for me? Only if all my games move there. I just don't think that mid limit games will survive at two different casinos. When the #3 casino opened up, it was pretty clear where the action was going. Now I don't know. And this can't be good for the games if a regular player can't plan on when or where to show up. I don't know. Maybe there's always a transition period while the truth is discovered, we'll see. Anyway, after thinking about it, I venture that the best scenario is one big casino that handles the majority of the business, and a few smaller casinos with lower-stakes games still nipping at their heels to keep them honest. Hmmm, kinda sounds like the OS/software industry...
Last Modified 2/9/00