Watching the blackjack tables at the Seminole casinos in Florida one would believe the game was alive and more than well throughout the US. However, in at least two states it appears the reverse is true and blackjack is suffering a decline. Long having been the most popular casino game in the state of Nevada, generating the most revenue of all the table games, last year the operators saw winnings slip by almost 20% with the lowest amounts wagered since 2003.

This clearly has much to do with lower disposable incomes these days and fewer visitors filling the hundreds of thousands of rooms in Las Vegas, but blackjack in Nevada’s casinos in 2009 dropped to under 10% of all revenue for the first time. To add insult to injury, the hold percentage was the lowest ever recorded in the state – just 11.3%. This has occurred in spite of a tightening of the rules in recent years that should mean a higher hold percentage.

In Colorado casino operators are asking the state’s Gaming Control Commission to lower the minimum payout on blackjack. The change would be for a 6 to 5 payout when a player made blackjack instead of 3 to 2, or a US$12 payout on a US$10 bet instead of the present US$15. Last July blackjack maximums were raised from US$5 to US$100 following approval by Colorado voters but the hoped for 25% increase in revenue has not transpired. In the six months following the change revenue rose 9% only.

Resorts Atlantic City recently launched US$2 blackjack to tempt players back to the tables although the casino is charging a 25-cent fee per hand on bets lower than US$5 to help cover operating costs. The casino says it is targeting new players, arguing that higher limits are off-putting to those learning the game, but many players just have less money in their pockets to wager at the gaming tables.

These days Nevada has fewer blackjack tables and the Las Vegas Strip casinos keep higher table minimums. Some believe that the reason blackjack is in decline is that the target players are shrinking from both ends of the market – higher minimums mean fewer casual players and tighter rules mean fewer top-end players, who may be turning to the baccarat tables in increasing numbers. In this casino operators are somewhat at fault in failing to recognize that table games, once seen as an upwardly mobile gambling activity, are now merely one more entertainment product competing with a myriad others. Furthermore, no matter how ‘illegal’, online gambling is eating away at the lower end of the market, the very market that could reverse the fortunes of the blackjack tables if the casinos provided the right conditions. (E-02.17.10)

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