Casino tightens its belt

(The following post mainly concerns a local casino near me; apologies if it is of no interest to the general audience, but I needed to vent a bit.)

I had heard the rumors from some craps-playing acquaintances of mine, and decided to go to Wheeling Island Casino (West Virginia) for the first time in five months to see for myself. Sadly, they were right...the fantastic 10x craps odds they previously offered are no more, replaced with boring old 3-4-5x. Table limits have been changed from $2-$1000 to $5-$500 as well. The lowered maximum doesn't bother a low-roller like me too much (though I know the high rollers who come in there are NOT happy with either change), but the loss of the $2 game during week means that the days of buying in for $200, putting $2 on the line and $20 in odds and playing for hours are gone as well.

Wheeling's closest existing competition (Mountaineer) has 5x across the board, and I have it on very good authority that the Meadows--just 30 minutes east--will have 10x odds when it opens table games next month. So it's disappointing to see that they're basically not even trying to compete.

If this keeps up, it looks like Ohio's casinos really will be the final nail in the coffin for the WV houses.

I'm rather surprised that Wheeling Island took the odds offered down a notch, considering that the West Virginia Lottery runs the table games. I would venture to guess that one of two things will happen soon: 1) Mountaineer and Meadows will be 3x,4x,5x, or 2) Wheeling Island will go back to 10x.

There seems to be such little variance between rules and games offered from Mountaineer and Wheeling Island, and I know that, as an example, when the lottery found out that Wheeling Island WASN'T raping the pot in the poker room that they forced them to make the change, taking at least a dollar for the rake AND the bad beat as long as there is 10 dollars in the pot.

Quote: OneAngryDwarf

(The following post mainly concerns a local casino near me; apologies if it is of no interest to the general audience, but I needed to vent a bit.)

I had heard the rumors from some craps-playing acquaintances of mine, and decided to go to Wheeling Island Casino (West Virginia) for the first time in five months to see for myself. Sadly, they were right...the fantastic 10x craps odds they previously offered are no more, replaced with boring old 3-4-5x. Table limits have been changed from $2-$1000 to $5-$500 as well. The lowered maximum doesn't bother a low-roller like me too much (though I know the high rollers who come in there are NOT happy with either change), but the loss of the $2 game during week means that the days of buying in for $200, putting $2 on the line and $20 in odds and playing for hours are gone as well.

Wheeling's closest existing competition (Mountaineer) has 5x across the board, and I have it on very good authority that the Meadows--just 30 minutes east--will have 10x odds when it opens table games next month. So it's disappointing to see that they're basically not even trying to compete.

If this keeps up, it looks like Ohio's casinos really will be the final nail in the coffin for the WV houses.

I can't speak for Meadows specifically but I have it from the guy setting up the games himself that Rivers will be 10xs. Same guy also said PA does not want one house to have an "advantage" over another in the same market so I would bet Meadows gets 10xs as well.

Wheeling had better go to 10xs or even 100xs to keep their action.

I think reality is going to set it for the new landscape in WV/PA/Del/NJ... any of these places who start thinking 2X odds with $10 minimums are going to feel the draft as everybody scoots to the other places. I've discounted Delaware as too far, but if it turns out that closer WV gets chintzy on these things, that will be reconsidered.

Most of our casinos (Indiana) have 10x odds, but its almost always $10 min so it doesn't mean much to a player like myself. Consider yourself lucky that you ever got to play $2 10x outside of Vegas. That would be a blast. I bet that the Penn casinos are going to have higher limits than WV once they get going.

I think players get used to certain things and develop preferences. 3x4x5x is fast and keeps the game moving so casinos adopt it. Its just about the same thing as 5x which isn't really all that challenging. That upper limit of a thousand now being an upper limit of 500 annoys people who never placed a black chip on the table once! It is the casino's attitude that is annoying when they make such changes.

2x at a craps table? Has to be a casino with a monopoly!

I hope things go well with the dealers but sometimes when a casino adopts such policies it reflects an overall attitude that the players sense as well.

Quote: FleaStiff

2x at a craps table? Has to be a casino with a monopoly!

Ha. For some reason I cannot understand properties like the Riveria and Circus Circus offer only 2x odds.

Quote: ruascott

Ha. For some reason I cannot understand properties like the Riveria and Circus Circus offer only 2x odds.

Well, they do have a sort of "monopoly"--or more accurately a duopoly--on that part of the Strip right now. It's a long walk in the hot sun to the next closest casino in either direction (Wynn & Sahara, respectively).

Interesting that the Stratosphere is even more isolated than those two, yet offers better odds (10x) than just about everyone else on the Strip except Casino Royale.

Quote: OneAngryDwarf

Well, they do have a sort of "monopoly"--or more accurately a duopoly--on that part of the Strip right now. It's a long walk in the hot sun to the next closest casino in either direction (Wynn & Sahara, respectively).

True. But the Fremont only offers 2x odds, while there are lots of casinos within walking distance of it. Main Street Station offers 20x odds and it is more isolated.

That's Downtown for you.

Just played $2 10x odds this weekend. A lot of fun. You can try different scenarios or just play for hours on $20.