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Texas Hold 'Em Poker making a splash in Cripple Creek
Published: 2005-03-01
 Texas Hold 'Em Poker making a splash in Cripple Creek
Colorado Springs Business Journal, March, 2005 by Stephanie Cline
Flip on the T.V. at any given time during the day. Chances are reruns of Friends or Cheers will be on at least one channel. But what also will be found are episodes of some of the most popular programs to hit the airwaves - Celebrity Poker Showdown and World Poker Tour.
The folks on the poker shows try to outwit the other players and score some cash. Sounds like a true reality show.
And that may be part of the appeal. These shows represent a kind of reality straight out of a friend's basement or from a pit in Las Vegas. Poker's popularity is on the rise, and has been for a few years.
Friendly games, where the players also act as dealers, are legal in Colorado. And thanks to the legalization of limited stakes gambling in Cripple Creek, folks from the Front Range, all of Colorado and around the world can throw cards in the little mountain town.
Cripple Creek was one of three cities in Colorado to receive approval for limited stakes gambling in 1990 after a statewide election. In limited stakes gambling, bets are limited to $5. While the $10,000 bets of Vegas are unheard of in the city, thousands flock to the poker tables available in a number of Cripple Creek's casinos. On New Years Eve 2004 the Gold Creek Casino had a hefty waiting list for Texas Hold 'Em.
Poker - the more you play, the more you learn and the less you know, said Bob Taylor, marketing director for the Triple Crown Casinos - the Midnight Rose, J.P. McGill's and the Brass Ass. In our three casinos we have a poker room. We've had a poker room all along and then this boom hit.
The boom has continued to draw an ever-increasing number of poker lovers, veterans and beginners. The trend is not limited to men, who have for decades hosted poker parties with their buddies.
We're seeing more and more women in our poker rooms, Taylor said. It's nice because it doesn't seem to be exclusive to guys. There's certainly no gender advantage in that game. I think that we're seeing more and more young people, under 40 people.
The Buffalo Billy's Casino also is seeing a rising interest in poker. The casino is going through its first expansion in seven years to accommodate the popularity of poker. The casino is expanding into an adjoining building and will include a large poker room with six to eight tables.
Buffalo Billy's currently has two tables and added Texas Hold 'Em in November. It's been wildly successful, said Mike Chaput, co- owner and general manager of the Buffalo Billy's and Bronco Billy's casinos.
As for the completion of Buffalo Billy's expansion project, we're shooting for Labor Day, Chaput said. There is a chance, he said, that the expansion would be a non-smoking facility.
Uncle Sam's Casino, one of the smaller casinos in town, is adding poker this month.
Most of the casinos in Cripple Creek belong to the Cripple Creek Casino Association. Kyle Fenner, executive director of the association, would like to bring more casinos into the group. I'm actually making a move to incorporate the independent casinos into our organization, she said. The benefits of belonging are they are listed on the Web site and they get links to their own Web site.
In addition, the association has a lobbyist on staff who works on behalf of the casino industry to ensure legislation that is favorable to gaming, she said.
I am a great conduit to the city, Fenner added. When the industry has needs I can walk in and meet with the city and say this is what our industry needs.
Whether or not a casino belongs to the association, folks in Cripple Creek are sure to be in for more opportunities to play cards. However, the move to add poker tables has not created a cutthroat competitive atmosphere among casino owners in Cripple Creek, Chaput said.
We seem to be only adding to the poker revenue of the town, he said. We're not taking it away from people.
Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
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Oklahoma cashes in on Texas Hold 'Em craze
Published: 2005-02-01
 Oklahoma cashes in on Texas Hold 'Em craze
Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), February, 2005 by Brian Brus
Card game gambling interest has grown faster than state officials expected since a new law allowed tribal casinos to compact with the state, Finance Director Scott Meacham said Wednesday.
With the Texas Hold 'Em card game craze that's gripped the nation, it's been fortuitous for us, Meacham said. Our estimates have been kind of low.
The state law, passed in November, allows tribes to form compacts with the state allowing card games at Indian casinos as long as the games are not banked by the house. That means the casino provides structure for players to compete against each other, and the casino can collect a fee for holding the games, but the casino cannot directly bank or fund the games.
Casinos are allowed to collect fees up to 10 percent of each game. The casino also collects for the state 10 percent of each pot, which is earmarked for education.
The state was expecting more than $7 million this fiscal year, but Meacham expects that to increase before the fiscal year ends June 30. Likewise, next fiscal year's estimates of more than $50 million are likely to be low, too, he said.
We think those estimates are low because a lot more tribes came online than we were projecting. We thought by July 1 we'd have 10 tribes and 15 by June the next year. We've already got 14 tribes that have submitted their compacts, he said.
The state's current staff of five employees to handle related work will have to be adjusted accordingly, he said.
The first four compacts under the new law were cleared for action after being entered in the Federal Register Jan. 27. Meacham said the Cherokee Nation and Absentee Shawnee Tribe began holding card games that same day.
Attorney Kirk Kickingbird, who represents several tribes in Oklahoma, said some compacts had been prepared months earlier but were delayed federal clearance by the holidays.
We actually thought it would move a little more quickly, Kickingbird said.
He and attorney William Norman represent the Absentee Shawnee, Comanche, Cherokee and Creek tribes through the Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker law firm, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Oregon.
Jim Druck said the Lucky Star Casino near El Reno is planning a 25,000-square-foot expansion to its existing 40,000-square-foot building as soon as the federal government clears the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes' compact in March. Druck is the chief executive of Bloomington, Minn.-based Southwest Casino and Hotel Corp., which manages Lucky Star.
We are training for our table games, and we have an expansion plan of pretty good magnitude, Druck said. I can tell you it's a nice increase. - I think we're looking in the neighborhood of 15-20 blackjack tables and 10 poker tables.
Norman said tribal relationships with the state would be complicated by the amount of information required to be shared about casino processes. The federal government and tribal gaming commissions are expected to conduct more frequent and thorough audits.
It's going to be an opportunity for the tribes to shore up their infrastructure and increase the revenues that are going to the programs that are dependent on these dollars, Norman said.
Meacham said an external auditor would review the records each year to ensure the state is getting its fair share. The state will track only net profits from card table games, so it's impossible to say how many poker or blackjack games are being run, he said.
Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
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