[pokerswami]

I've never been involved in casino management, but, of course, I still have a strong opinion on this.

In Las Vegas, I think poker room profit per square foot or per table or per employee shouldn't be compared to other casino operations. There is no great shortage of square footage or employees.

If a casino completely filled it's non-poker gaming area with all the gaming activity it could fit and it couldn't expand and each activity was more profitable per square foot than poker then the comparison with poker room profitability would be understandable.

In this discussion I'm leaving out the obvious considerations that a casino has regarding keeping a big enough variety of pit and slot games to try to attract and keep a wide spectrum of players/family members happy.

My point is that in a casino whose size is not limited by legal or geographic constraints, as with a river barge or a limit as to area or number of games, then poker should be considered a separate profit center that can be operated for that profit regardless of how it compares to the profit of other casino gaming.

Just think of it as extra profit. Not every business activity will return the same profit per square foot, but if it's profitable and if your higher profit areas aren't saturated and therefore in need of expansion and if it doesn't hinder your other activities, then engage in it.

Also, if you increase your take per player for poker it opens up the real possibility of newer, much better venues for poker taking away your poker business plus whatever extra you make as a result of having poker, such as spouse/friend play and poker players blowing their money off in the pits/slots.

Who among us wouldn't want to own a Las Vegas "Poker Palace", even with a $4. max rake? (Remember the point of the article was the advice to operators to increase their take per table.) I could handle the profit from a busy room, even if it had considerably less profit per square foot than that of a typical casino. I could handle it just fine, thank you very much.