The demise of Video Poker

[Quisper]

I was playing VP this morning in my favorite casino. Not my favorite for any other reason than it is somewhat convenient to my home.
I hit a hand pay and proceeded to wait and wait for the attendant. When he arrived, it was a guy I have gotten to know fairly well over the years. I asked him why it took so long and he told me that in years past there was always an attendant patrolling in or near the video poker area.
No more. He said players and hand pays have become so infrequent in the video poker area that an attendant has to be notified from another area of the casino when a hand pay is hit.
And I was thinking, yeah, exactly. For the past few years I have always been able to find plenty of VP machines open, if not all of them! While in years past I might have to really search for an open seat.
But then the attendant said something chilling to me. He said that he gives video poker only a few more years because it is less and less cost-efficient for casinos to devote the floor space to it.
I have to admit.....in years past I could log in to Video Poker com and there was always a new post or two with photos of someone's big win. Now....not so much.
I think everyone on this forum who loves to play video poker in casinos better play as much as you can as fast as you can, because it is a threatened species.

[dinghy]

I think everyone on this forum who loves to play video poker in casinos better play as much as you can as fast as you can, because it is a threatened species.

For some reason, the photo of your hand pay jackpot is not displaying for me.

[tech58]

Totally agree Q.
New casinos open they have no playable VP.
Good machines disappear at ones we know.
Ultimate insult at my home casino. The comps, and points, and bonuses, and drawing hits, earned on VP
Cannot be played on VP
Regular VP guys that I know are disappearing, along with their slot playing friends and relatives.
The casino is hurting, giving out added bonuses and bonus incentive days but have not figured out yet that they shot themselves in the wallet.
Back to 1/4 of my previous coin-in and enjoying small wins just as much.

[olds442jetaway]

Ditto. Tech when is the last time anyone saw new vp machines brought in other than to replace old ones in the same location. Most replacements have poor a paytable as well. Same experience with slot attendants except so far in my few and far between hand pays I haven’t had to wait long. Usually, the ones that haven’t gone home early are just hanging around chit chatting to pass the time and trying to decide who’s turn it is to go on break. There used to be about 2-3 dozen regular Vp players I would know well and by name at any given time I was there playing. On my last few trips, I have been the only die hard. My favorite servers in the Vp area have even had time to chit chat for 15 minutes at a time!!!!!

[applepear86]

Here in Michigan every casino is getting the new all star video poker cabinets, and filling them with junk absolutely unplayable paytables, like 7/5 ddb and 8/5 tdb. I think their strategy is to attract elmer fudd types who don't care and will run a few hundred through for a measley 5 dollar mailer, who also throw away an additional 3 to 5% on their holds. I don't see a ton of the saavy daddy warbucks multi thousand dollar ticket players like I used to, they were the ones who always got multiple W2s. I don't like where the winds seem to be sailing the VP ship.

[dinghy]

Do you guys just copy-paste your posts from the other 25 identical discussions? I can't tell the difference.

Things change. That's what things do. But vp is not going extinct . Depending on how we measure, I would guess vp in your states is bigger and better than ever before. It may be true that your b&m is emptier at 4 am, but that's because people are playing online instead.

And some of those online games are full-pay. Most of the sites are paywalled to me, but here's the first one I found with demo mode: Golden Nugget MI, affiliated with Ojibwa. Single line JoB, 25c+:



That's 99.55 imo.

A huge, new opportunity for much of the nation is sports betting. If you enjoy vp for the skill element, now you have another major skill option. No doubt sports has drawn some players away from vp, but the novelty will wear off.

The vp sector will continue to have ups and downs, just as we've seen with live poker. If you can adapt to inevitably changing circumstances, you'll always have something to play at either a small cost or with an edge.

[applepear86]

Do you guys just copy-paste your posts from the other 25 identical discussions? I can't tell the difference.

Things change. That's what things do. But vp is not going extinct . Depending on how we measure, I would guess vp in your states is bigger and better than ever before. It may be true that your b&m is emptier at 4 am, but that's because people are playing online instead.

And some of those online games are full-pay. Most of the sites are paywalled to me, but here's the first one I found with demo mode: Golden Nugget MI, affiliated with Ojibwa. Single line JoB, 25c+:



That's 99.55 imo.

A huge, new opportunity for much of the nation is sports betting. If you enjoy vp for the skill element, now you have another major skill option. No doubt sports has drawn some players away from vp, but the novelty will wear off.

The vp sector will continue to have ups and downs, just as we've seen with live poker. If you can adapt to inevitably changing circumstances, you'll always have something to play at either a small cost or with an edge.

That's because online is better all around odds-wise, they have 95%+ payback slots which you WOULD NEVER see in a michigan casino let alone any other land based casinos outside of upper high limit. VP will never die online, too much competition domestically and offshore. I've done all the offers, I know how it goes lol. But this thread is complaining about the demise of land-based video poker all around, not the lack of options online.

And not to state the obvious or to divert this to an online vs land based debate, but having access to gambling in your living room with it being attached to your checking account isn't the healthiest thing lol. When I did gamble on there, I at least went to go sit in starbucks to get out of the house.

That paytable is 99.6684% btw, pretty solid.

[olds442jetaway]

On line gambling just is not for me. Each to his/ her own. I have no interest in sports betting either. If VP just totally dries up, I can always go back to day trading, but the enjoyment for me just isn’t the same. I will say though the no fee buying and selling is great. Years ago the fees were brutal. Check out the fee schedule back in the day. I started in the mid 1970s. odd lots were even worse. Reminds me of the newer pay tables being installed.

[olds442jetaway]

Forgot to mention and best of all, in stock trading, Unlike VP, Uncle Sam will pay for a good chunk of my mistakes ( whatever bracket my last dollars in percentage wise ) The State gets to pay a chunk too, though less than a third of what the Fed pays.

[dinghy]

But this thread is complaining

Yes, that's what we do here.

To understand the situation, we have to consider all aspects. Not only online, but also b&m expansion of sports. I assume this Mohegan Sun sportsbook is new:



That's going to influence volume of other casino games.

If we agree that good vp is available online, it doesn't make any sense to me that vp will die out at the b&ms. People sometimes want the b&m experience, but now they'll be acclimated to better payouts. Online therefore creates competitive pressure for b&m's to improve product, even though the operators are the same.

All these expanded options are likely growing the overall market, in which case there's still room for all the gaming types to coexist.