Changing of the guard
The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas has revealed that it is removing all of its live table games at the end of August. The property, which opened in 1906 as the city’s first hotel structure and became the Golden Gate in 1955, will only feature electronic table games going forward.
dealers will be able to take up roles at tables at the D or Circa Las Vegas
Its owner, Circa Hospitality Group, released a statement announcing the news, saying that it’s trying to embrace the future and will offer an electronic table games pit that will be “unlike anything downtown has seen.” It noted that all of its dealers will be able to take up roles at tables at the D or Circa Las Vegas or explore other job opportunities within the company.
A citywide trend
This decision didn’t come out of the blue, as the size of the table game pit at the property has been decreased a couple of times in recent years. The operator removed tables on two occasions to make way for electronic alternatives.
only 67 Las Vegas casinos will still offer live games
Once the dealers disappear from the Golden Gate gaming floor and the Poker Palace when it closes in September, only 67 Las Vegas casinos will still offer live games. This compares to 80 in March 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Properties like the Eastside Cannery, Texas Station, and Fiesta Henderson never reopened, while others like the Bighorn and Jokers Wild returned without any live tables.
The reasoning
A big reason why casinos are reducing the number of live games is the cost of running them. They have to pay the dealer an hourly wage and also require extra security, surveillance operators, and supervisors to keep an eye on everything.
Other expenses that can rack up include cards, chips, licensing, and maintenance, which leads to the cost-benefit of still offering live games not being so rosy. Electronic games, in contrast, eliminate many of these costs, allow people to play at their own pace, and eliminate a lot of compliance risks as it’s very easy to keep track of every bet.
