Steady as She Goes
A Seat at the Table photo by pavel-danilyuk
Poker ’ s fight to stay relevant in 2022 and beyond BY JESS MARQUEZ
For many , many years , the game of poker was “ cool ”— -it had a highflying , wheelin ’ -dealin’, almost romantic “ boom or bust ” mystique that separated it from other gambling pastimes . It was a form of slick Americana , the game of choice for the John Waynes , Paul Newmans and Steve McQueens of the world .
Kids played for pots of bubblegum on the sidewalk and neighbors prepared various dips and casseroles in time for basement get-togethers . Its vernacular became part of the lexicon , because God knows it helps to keep a poker face when going all-in , especially when the chips are down .
However , as gaming expanded and other offerings like slots , blackjack and sports betting became real needle-movers , poker lost a little of its luster and became less of a staple and more of a complementary option . Its player base stopped evolving and started getting older , some might even say stagnant , and it ’ s easy to understand why — the game , as cool as it may be , has an extremely high barrier to entry ; as Kenny Rogers made famous , you ’ ve got to know a lot of things to be an effective poker player .
The game has many endearing qualities , but accessibility has never been one of them .
Then the dot-com boom of the early 2000s came along , and all of a sudden the game was completely reinvigorated with digital life , and anyone with a desktop could run hands all day and night and master the game without going through the school of hard knocks that was previously considered to be part of the process .
The birth of televised tournaments with green-screened cards spawned a newer , younger generation of data-driven players who were more akin to Silicon Valley than Tin Pan Alley . It seemed as though the spark was enough to rekindle a new , brighter future for poker .
Sadly , it wasn ’ t . Participation and interest gradually re-fizzled over the years , until eventually the Covid hurricane came through in March 2020 and swept the entire industry basically out to sea . A large number of casinos had already begun to scale down their poker ops before the crisis , and numerous rooms around the country have since closed for good .
With all of that said , what is the state of the game in 2022 ? As with everything else , it depends on who you ask .
Steady as She Goes
When it comes to gaming trends , the simplest answers often come from regional operators , as those with locally focused markets need to be calculated and decisive about their expenditures .
For Jerry Sandau , director of poker operations at Agua Caliente Casinos in California , the game certainly isn ’ t dead , but its future prospects in terms of evolution and growth aren ’ t exactly gangbusters . Sandau is confident that “ there ’ s still a place for poker in most casinos ,” given the fact that the game has “ always been a facilitator for the rest of the property , whether it ’ s table games , slots or whatnot .
“ That being said though , the state of poker , I think , is pretty obviously in a downfall over these last several years ,” he says . “ It really curtails more towards the older generation , I guess you could say that they ’ re the ones that draw to poker the most . Although the younger crowd who play tournaments are out there , in general , it ’ s more the older clientele that would play a lot of poker .
24 Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2022