Business

It would appear that poker in Las Vegas has hit its first downturn in at least three years. That being said overall gaming revenues are down this fall in Las Vegas. While late summer revenues are generally lower in the scorching Nevada desert, these are yearly comparisons and clearly poker players are not playing like they were just a year ago.

Revenues from poker rooms throughout Nevada were down about 6 percent in July and August compared with the same period a year earlier, according to figures from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Staff and players all note the trend continuing and even increasing in September and October.

Most industry experts in Southern Nevada agree that the recent poker popularity explosion, fueled by Internet play and television coverage, appears to be waning, speculation is that the US government's ban on online gaming may be contributing to the decline.

Of course these year-over-year comparisons must stand up to three full years of double digit increases; numbers which obviously were not going to be sustained indefinitely. The Las Vegas Hilton became the first casino to close its poker room this year. However, several of the new properties under construction are said to be reconsidering placing yet another poker room into the valuable new space of their soon to be opened mega-casino.

Other casino operators are working overtime to keep their rooms going. I am working on several pieces comparing the newest incentives being offered by poker rooms but the old standbys of freerolls and cash giveaways seem to be popping up at more and more casinos.

Any fad, every disaster, a craze, most new products draw attention from investors. Why gamble at a poker table when you can gamble on a stock exchange. A lot more interest has been focused on poker related stocks since the USA passed the UIGEA gaming law last fall. The competing theories are:

-if the UIGEA stays in effect, eventually all online gaming companies will be banned in the USA and their stocks and affliated companies will suffer;
-when the UIGEA is reversed these same companies will prosper;
-if the law is reversed, new and bigger companies will replace those that have fallen by the wayside in the last eight months;
-no one knows anything but speculation is the lifeblood of investing.

Here are some of the stocks that have drawn a lot of that speculation because of their ties to online poker:

I have heard several stories recently about business and poker. No, not the old hackneyed ones about how "bluffing" is the same in business and in poker or how poker skills and business skills... blah, blah, blah.

No, I mean the news reports that companies are using poker tournaments to screen out prospective candidates for jobs. Something about how the skills at the poker table are what a good recruiter is looking for.

One such event was hosted by Susquehanna International Group, a leading trading and financial services firm, at the company’s headquarters in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. Coverage of this recruiting event was not all insider PR. The Recruiting Director said:

"The tournament was a successful vehicle for giving our top job candidates a more intimate look at Susquehanna and the many opportunities which can pursue here. While many of these candidates probably never heard of Susquehanna a year ago, now it's a name they will never forget."

One wonders how many of these jobs require at least a sit-n-go as part of the interview?

And finally some jobs are all about poker like: a Business Analyst to gather poker product and poker product support requirements for the completion of accurate functional specifications and business requirements documents.