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Monday, June 15, 1998
GAMING CHIPS: Rio latest Las Vegas casino to close poker room
Chalk it up to those video-game-playing kids who now are old enough to gamble and are flocking to interactive slots or blackjack.
Or attribute it to less-sociable times, when video poker and high-resolution images have become the game du jour.
Whatever the cause, the Rio has become the latest Las Vegas casino to eliminate its poker room.
"It's basically something we've been looking at over the past 18 months," said Cary Rehm, the Rio's vice president of casino operations. "That business is just going away."
Last year, Michael Gaughan moved his poker room from his Gold Coast to The Orleans. In past years, the MGM Grand and Stardust downsized their rooms, while Treasure Island, the Desert Inn and Caesars Palace closed theirs.
The goal: Replace the space with more profitable offerings that generate higher foot traffic.
The Rio, which closed its room on May 28, plans to replace its eight poker tables with multigame slots geared toward locals.
"I think what's going to end up is there's going to be X-number of poker rooms around town," Rehm said, "and the other ones are going to fade away."
The Rio plans to once again hold its big-money Carnival World of Poker Tournament in January, a casino spokeswoman said. The annual event was inaugurated last year.
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TRIVIA TIME ... What was King Richard I of England's role in limiting the spread of gambling?
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AN EYE TO THE SKY ... Thursday's Nevada Gaming Control Board hearing to consider the fate of Binion's Horseshoe had been delayed about 30 minutes when members of the three-person board began to push for it to begin.
Control board Chairman Bill Bible looked to Horseshoe Club Operating Co. lawyer Frank Schreck.
"Are you ready Mr. Schreck?" Bible inquired.
Rumors were circulating throughout the hearing room that the deal through which Binion sibling Becky Behnen would assume control of the downtown property from her two brothers and sister was about to be quashed by last-minute family feuding.
Not so, according to Binion lawyers -- a fact that was borne out by gaming regulators' approval later in the day of the ownership shuffle. The deal is scheduled to close on July 2.
As a crowd of 60 lawyers, gaming executives and reporters awaited the meeting's beginning, control board member Steve DuCharme made a papal reference that sparked an outburst of laughter.
"Do we see the white smoke coming out of the chapel?" DuCharme asked, referring to the Vatican's tradition for announcing the selection of a new pope.
There was no smoke, but the meeting began after the laughter subsided.
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SIGN OF THE TIMES ... The soon-to-open Bellagio is asking $429 per night for its standard deluxe room during the Comdex computer show. Guests are required to check in on Nov. 14, two days before the four-day show's opening on Nov. 16.
At Bellagio's sister property The Mirage, reservation clerks are asking $349 per night with a four-night minimum beginning Nov. 15.
At the company's neighboring Treasure Island, Mirage Resorts Inc. is seeking $339 a night with a Nov. 14 arrival required.
As for that $429 room rate at Bellagio, it drops to $99 a night during the traditionally slow pre-Christmas days of Dec. 15 through 17, and the 20th through 23rd.
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TUMBLING DOWN ... Station Casinos Inc. has begun tearing down a vacant strip mall that it owns across from Sam's Town on Boulder Highway. Station Casinos, which claims to hold an estimated 42 percent of the local gaming market, has announced plans to build a casino dubbed Wild Wild West across from Boyd Gaming Corp.'s Sam's Town. No timetable has been set for the project.
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TRIVIA ANSWER ... In 1190, King Richard I prohibited gambling among common soldiers while restricting knights and clergymen to stakes of no more than 100 shillings in any one gambling session, according to "Gambling without Guilt," by John Rosecrance.
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QUOTABLE ... "I started to argue several months ago that the Laughlin market was settling down. Next month, the numbers could be down again, but I think we could see some stabilization in that market." -- Russell Guindon, a Nevada Gaming Control Board statistical analyst, reflecting upon newly released figures that showed the Laughlin gaming win was up 1.6 percent to $42.1 million in April following four consecutive months of decline.
Gaming Chips is written by Review-Journal writer Dave Berns. Reach him by e-mail at Dave_Berns@lvrj.com or by telephone at (702) 380-4543.
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