Land-based casinos in America have put together a sorry track record over the last ten years in supporting online poker. In fact, close to nothing the casinos have done has been supportive of this enormous industry. However, with the majority of industry analysts predicting eventual American legalization, the brick-and-mortar side of the poker industry is changing their tune.
Two states and two major casinos have now launched free online poker websites. After a decade of claiming that online poker hurts casinos, this move can only mean one thing: these companies expect to eventually make money from these websites. The Barona Resort & Casino (San Diego, CA) and South Point Hotel, Casino Spa (Las Vegas, NV) aren’t investing in full time staff to run these free poker sites for nothing. There is only one end game here, and that’s to turn a profit. For this to happen, real money online poker will have to be legalized and these casinos are making that bet early.
South Point’s owner Michael Gaughan announced that his new free online poker site will run on the ZEN Entertainment Network. The site is expected to be fully operational within 2 weeks. As an incentive, the site will offer cash prizes to players, and will not charge a membership fee. The Zen Entertainment Network already runs a few successful poker sites, including CardPlayerPoker.com and SpadesClub.com. Very noticeably, Gaughan indicated in the announcement that he plans to apply for an intrastate online poker license in the near future.
Barona Resort’s online poker site will be geared specifically towards club Barona members. The site will also offer prizes without a membership fee. Rick Salinas, Barona Resort’s General Manager, commented, “We are always looking for new and inventive way to excite our players and launching this free to play site is just another way to provide more fun for our players while at home.” The site will include Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud. While the beta launch will only be offered to existing club Barona members, a more feature-rich version will be launched to the public several months later.
Major casinos investing in online poker platforms makes it very clear to the online poker enthusiast that legalizing online poker in America is on its way. Eventually, that is.