According to multiple reports, the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has closed its poker room. Last week, a representative from the casino told USPoker.com that the poker room simply closed; there was no internal or external communication about it at all. CardPlayer.com wrote yesterday that a spokesperson said the poker room will be closed “indefinitely.”
Many people hearing this news may have the reaction, “The Circus Circus casino had a poker room?”
That is likely the reason why it is being closed. There was next to zero action at the tables at the casino located on the far north end of the Las Vegas Strip. And why should there have been? That area is not known as the most attractive on the Strip; people stay there for the low hotel rates. In the meantime, the Wynn is nearby to the south, while places like Bellagio and Caesars are just a little further down the Strip.
Circus Circus is not the first casino Vegas-area casino to shutter its poker room in recent months. About a month ago, the M Resort, a “boutique” hotel and casino in Henderson, closed down its poker room for financial reasons. It will reconfigure the space to house slot machines for tournament play. The M Resort will still continue to host poker tournaments, though not in a dedicated poker room. Last year, the casino was the venue for the $2,500 Hollywood Poker Open, which drew 631 players and featured a prize pool of more than $1.4 million.
The downtown Las Vegas casino, The Plaza, temporarily closed its poker room last month after starting a trial run in July using electronic PokerTek poker tables. Fortunately, it reopened yesterday and is offering a variety of poker games as well as multi-table tournaments and Sit-and-Go’s.
In June, the Riviera, located directly across the street from Circus Circus, also closed its six-table poker room. It might as well have already been closed, though, as there were generally at most two tables going. At times, there was not a single soul playing poker at the Riviera. The casino was so desperate to draw poker players this summer that from late-May to mid-July, it offered a comped weekday hotel room for every six hours spent at the poker tables.
Poker isn’t completely dead north of Riviera Boulevard, though. The LVH, which is the re-branded Las Vegas Hilton, opened its new five-table poker room this summer. The casino is located just east of the Riviera, at Rivera Boulevard and Paradise Road.
