There’s been a lot of talk about closures in Las Vegas recently. The Tropicana, the Mirage, and now Caesars poker room. Not all of these closures are bad, as a new baseball stadium and resort will go up where the Tropicana now stands. And we all know that the Hard Rock will soon rise from the spot where the Mirage volcano has entertained visitors for years. But what’s going on with Caesars and poker?
Well, you can blame the temporary closure of the Caesars poker room on slot machines. As much as we love the game of poker, slots are the cash cow of casinos, so it’s understandable that they really love their high limit slots areas. And as Caesars reworks their high limit slot lounge, the poker room seems to be the best place they could find to host a temporary slot parlor. That’s bad news for poker players, but at least the closure isn’t permanent.
So when will all of this go down? Sources say the work will only take two or three months, which isn’t that long by Vegas standards. And the poker room is set to be shut down in about a week, just after the middle of the month. With any luck, the renovations will go smoothly and players will be able to shuffle up and deal again no later than mid-October. However, we all understand that another Vegas standard is construction delays.
This isn’t the first time that the Caesars poker room has been shoved out of the way like a red-headed step child. About ten years ago they relocated the actual “room” to another spot of the casino so that they could put in the Pure Nightclub. And in an era where we see poker disappearing from casino floors in Las Vegas and across the country, I guess we should just be happy that they are bringing it back at all. Perhaps they felt obligated to do so since they own the World Series of Poker brand.