[blueodum]

"And what, may I ask, do you think most of these players waiting to play poker are doing?"

If they are anything like me, they are pacing and/or watching games from the rail until a seat opens up. Probably the number of times they visit the casino is inversely proportional to the length of the wait.

I don't think its unreasonable to suppose that well over half of the new breed of poker players wouldn't visit the casino - ever - if there was no poker there. I certainly wouldn't, as I have no interest in playing table games or slots.

If they magically found the space to double the size of the Fallsview poker room, there would be shorter waits, perhaps more game variety, and so people would come more often. Casual drop-in types, seeing that there is an immediate seat open, might choose to sit down in a poker game instead of leaving the casino after they've had their fill of table games and/or slots.

In short you would significantly increase the number of people coming into the casino and in some cases lengthen their stay.

Conversely, if you added 100 more slot machines (about the equivalent space wise of doubling the poker room), I doubt you'd get more than a tiny fractional increase in income - because there is such a large surplus of unused machines already.

And don't forget that high rollers sometimes win big at table games and spend that money somewhere else. You can't count on them dropping all their cash in the craps game. The casino gets guaranteed money from poker.