2+2er owned and operated poker room

[anduril]

So I and three other 2p2ers who I am good friends with are seriously looking into composing a business plan for a poker room in Massachusetts. Currently, this is illegal. However, there are several pieces of legislation in the works that may change the law. It may only make concessions for Indian Reservations, or it may just make gambling legal. I may actually lean towards the latter, since several lawmakers have realized how little a contribution an Indian casino would bring for state revenue. Anyway, nothing will change very soon, but I think the day a bill passes to allow gambling, we should have our business plan set with investors in line.

Our tentative plan is to construct a casino that is similar to those that are in CA. Poker only, no one-arm bandits. At some point when we have a finished business plan we'd like to take a trip out to CA and visit a few rooms and see if any of the owners have vested interest. It would be a poker room built by poker players, for poker players. There are other specifics that would make this post very long winded and I can reply more specifically to people who think we are crazy but our problem is this: None of us have business degrees. Three of us used to play for a living. We know how to run a poker room, we know how to treat players, how to treat staff, and how to make people want to come and play in our room. We don't know how to get venture capital, how to make a comprehensive business plan, or even how to find any of this out. Also, any legal people in MA who know anything would be a great help to post anything here. So, um, help?

[bluef0x]

http://www.pokertek.com/

[M2d]

i think, if you're given the leeway to have slot machines, not having them is pretty much shooting yourselves in the foot as well as giving away free money.

[anduril]

It's tough to say how the laws might change if they do, so I wouldn't even know if that's possible. The problem is, slots = other table games = hotel = golf course = something MUCH bigger than we are prepared to engage in. Right now there is Foxwoods in CT and Turning Stone which is west of Syracuse. The next closest poker room is the Borgata.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Three of us used to play for a living. We know how to run a poker room

[/ QUOTE ]


my hunch is that this alone doesn't necessarily make you qualified.

[anduril]

the first sentence was not meant to imply the second. We do have first hand experience however.

edit: I like your delicate criticism though.

[kemystery]

poker rooms are moderate earners unless you're the Commerce, sounds more like you guys want a place to play - why not just provide a floating game?

as for visiting CA poker rooms, I have yet to see one run especially well outside of the premier rooms like Bay 101, Commerce,The Bike etc. Not sure what you expect to glean from them. gl

[anduril]

[ QUOTE ]
poker rooms are moderate earners unless you're the Commerce, sounds more like you guys want a place to play - why not just provide a floating game?

as for visiting CA poker rooms, I have yet to see one run especially well outside of the premier rooms like Bay 101, Commerce,The Bike etc. Not sure what you expect to glean from them. gl

[/ QUOTE ]

we're most certainly not just looking for a place to stay, nor are we looking to become bazillionaires (obv). We are looking to create a great poker room in the Northeast where there are no great poker rooms (IMO Foxwoods blows and treats everyone terribly). That's our goal.

[RoundTower]

If you are running a small place with only poker, the rake is going to be disproportionately high. Better to have a few hundred square feet of slots bringing in the $ and aim to break even on the poker.

Over here there are plenty of cardrooms which have say 10-20 poker tables and 10 or less gaming tables, not huge places with hotels and restaurants. Why not follow this model?

[suzzer99]

Good timing to jump into the poker boom. After this you might want to look into flipping condos and Dutch tulips. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]