Booming Business?

When Internet poker became more and more popular a few years ago, brick-and-mortar casinos were very fearful of this new phenomenon. They feared that online poker could very well keep potential customers inside their homes – and more importantly, away from their cardrooms.



This was the common view for quite some time. But nowadays, this sentiment seems to have changed somewhat. Because of the recent poker boom (especially in the United States, but to a lesser degree also here in Europe), there has been an abundance of new players who have started online and have now found their way into "normal" cardrooms. In fact, many old-style casinos now work together with online cardrooms, thinking that Internet poker will help in creating new players for them. For instance, in the words of top-notch European tournament director Thomas Kremser (featured in our cover story), "Poker in Europe hasn't reached the end of its growth yet. We still get more and more online players, and thus, in time, we will get more and more offline players, as well." Lots of people nowadays agree with this. But are they right?



If you take a look at the day-in, day-out business of the major European casinos, the picture doesn't look all that pretty. The Vic in London may be a legendary casino, and England may be a country where, because of all the TV shows, poker is booming, but at Edgware Road, they only rarely have more than six games going. Barcelona may be my favorite place in Europe, but four tables a night is about the maximum they have. In Amsterdam, cash-game poker seemed to be on the rise about three years ago, but nowadays it is back to two tables again. And even Europe's poker capital, Vienna, doesn't seem to get that many new faces anymore, despite the opening of many new cardrooms. In fact, many of them are actually struggling, and even at Concord, the action is not anywhere near the 12 to 15 tables a night that we had back when I still worked there.



So, what does all this mean? I guess it means that most brick-and-mortar cardrooms have booming business only whenever they host a televised tournament or a big festival. Here, the Internet is indeed very helpful in providing many players through online qualifications. But, when there are no big events – which is most of the year, usually – online poker just seems to harm them. Online, one can multitable with games that are faster and a rake that is lower, with no need to travel or dress up, and with an almost constant assurance of good games. Now, the combination of all of this means that most brick-and-mortar rooms just cannot compete anymore, simply because online poker offers better value to the players. This means that, at least in my view, online players will not automatically walk a path of first learning online to then becoming regulars in brick-and-mortar cardrooms, especially the young guys who think normal cash-game poker is too slow or too boring. And inasmuch as cash games are still the core business of most brick-and-mortar cardrooms, most of them are struggling nowadays – despite the fact that poker is booming.



So, many casinos nowadays have started offering more and bigger tournaments to attract the big players, and to get these online players into their rooms. But this is at the expense of their regular cash games, especially in the long run. In my view, it is not smart for a business to keep focusing on customers who are not loyal, while neglecting the ones who are. What's the use in attracting people who will come over to play in your event for a few days, only to leave when they busted out, then shift their focus to online poker again or some other big event that they'll go to. If brick-and-mortar casinos keep focusing on these customers instead of the ones who make them money on a daily basis, I am certain they will not profit much from the poker boom, if at all. Or better yet, they will profit from it for just a couple of days, rather than the entire year.