No banking in Pai Gow Poker

I recently played pai gow poker in two different casinos in Missouri, one a Harrah's property. I asked to bank at both and the dealers looked at me like I was an alien. No idea what I was talking about. Anybody ever run into this outside of Missouri? Anybody know why these casinos would take away this fundamental part of the game?

I've never seen them go that far. However, it is obvious they are trying to phase it out at least. At many casinos the turn to bank zig-zags between the dealer and players, and/or if a player declines it, or there is an empty seat, the turn reverts to the dealer. At least in pai gow tiles the turn still properly rotates around the table.

I also live in the mid-west and 2 of the 3 casinos I visit (in Indiana) have Pai Gow poker. NONE of them allow the player to bank. The dealers either have no clue of this option or tell me "You need to go to Vegas if you want to bank." I understand your frustration.

The casino I went to here in FL- allows banking by the players on the conditions of:

your wager as banker must equel the total of your previous wager as non-banker

banking is allowed every other turn by a player and not by the same player two player turns in a row excpet that no other player wishes to bank or your a lone player.

so on a table of 7 if two were wanting to bank it would go to the effect of

dealer - player 1 - dealer - player 2 - dealer - player 1, ect

Whats the notion of making yoru banker chip count be the same as your previous plays chip count- isnt the advantage in being banker the other players chips not related to your own bet? Is this to limit your bet as banker or to max it?

Well, when you bank you have an greater advantage over the dealer--the fact that you win copies--although the 5% commission is still taken. So I guess they want to prevent you from betting the minimum every time and then jacking up your bet when it's your turn to bank. Kinda silly since they'll still get their cut of the wager. By the way, that is a pretty bad banking "diagram." Where I play it goes Dealer-Player 1-Player 2-etc.-Dealer. I've heard of worse, though.

The worst Pai Gow Poker game has to be at Potawatomi in Milwaukee. No banking, no bonus bet, no quarters - all commissions are rounded up to the nearest $0.50. The table limits are $10-$500. Not fun at all.