Downtown Chicago casino coming?

[ClarkNasty]

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Now will these be like the other casinos in which no poker except for weekdays and crazy hours.

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The problem in Illinois is that the current law limits the number of "gaming positions" that a casino can have. The law doesn't differentiate between a slot machine, a table-game seat, or a seat in a poker room. So most casinos choose to install 10 slot machines instead of one poker table. They'll shut down some slots and allow poker during periods when the slot traffic is light, but they view the slots as being more profitable on weekends.

The proposal currently working its way through the legislature includes an increase in the number of positions each casino can have. (I've heard the increase described as "dramatic", but don't know how large it really is.) Hopefully, some casinos will choose to allocate a chunk of those new positions to poker rooms; but most will probably go the lazy route and just add more slots.

At one point, there was a proposal, backed by the horse industry, that wanted to expand gaming by allowing slots and poker at Illinois horse tracks (similar to Iowa's racinos). Unfortunately, that's fallen by the wayside for now.

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It's not the lazy route, it's the only reasonable route. Most of the Chicago riverboats are incrementally taxed at 50% of gaming revenue (Nevada is 7%), and pay a per-person admissions tax on top of it. Add poker's overhead to that and suddenly they are running a poker room for next to nothing.

[Demonic1]

Thats insane to limit the number of "gaming positions" in a single casino!?! I mean, what was the insanity behind that mind-set,to keep the size of the casino's down?

[iron81]

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Horseshoe's new boat called the building on water will be ready for the summer of 2008. There will be an 30 plus table poker room.

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There are too many poker tables in Northwest Indiana. Two years ago, you would have to come in at 3PM on a Saturday to avoid a 3 hour wait. Now, they barely manage to fill the room at 10PM Saturday. Although it would be great if the Resorts 10/20 game moved to Horseshoe.

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Thats insane to limit the number of "gaming positions" in a single casino!?! I mean, what was the insanity behind that mind-set,to keep the size of the casino's down?

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Yes.