RIP Plaza

[pieinthesky]

I recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas that included a few days downtown. The Plaza used to be my first stop after I left the airport for its great double deck games. Lately, these have been lousy; now, they and all the other table games are completely gone! I see the place is undergoing a (long needed) renovation, and a good part of the gaming floor was fenced off for construction, suggesting the removal may be temporary. Anyone know anything about this?

 

[shadroch]

Owners of The Plaza bought the furniture, gaming fixtures and carpeting from a casino that was in the process of being built, but was suspended.
It will undergo an almost complete transformation.

 

[Sucker]

It's been like that for a couple of months now. The day shift bartender tells me it's only temporary;and a security guard on swing shift tells me the same story.
Hopefully, this will be the case; before they go bankrupt.

Ever since that magician beat the crap out of them in BJ about five years ago, that place has been going down hill rather quickly.

 

[zoomie]

[ . . . ] Ever since that magician beat the crap out of them in BJ about five years ago, that place has been going down hill rather quickly.

Whoa. What magician? What happened?

 

[Jack_Black]

Whoa. What magician? What happened?

he made a whole bunch of chips disappear from the chip tray, and then made them reappear in his stack.

 

[ChefJJ]

Owners of The Plaza bought the furniture, gaming fixtures and carpeting from a casino that was in the process of being built, but was suspended.
It will undergo an almost complete transformation.

Fontainebleau, right?

 

[HockeXpert]

Fontainebleau, right?

Bingo. Both Plaza and Cosmos got FB's furniture at bargain basement prices.

 

[Sucker]

Whoa. What magician? What happened?

A few days after it happened I got the story from someone in the know -

Without mentioning any names - It was a rather well known magician who works his act around town. He WASN'T cheating; he went in there as a BP for a hole card team. His bet size was 2 x $2000. They ended up beating them out of something in the area of high 5 figures, which for a small club like that is DEVASTATING.

The funny thing is, a certain floor walker happened upon the scene early in the play & tried to warn the shift boss what was going on, but was LAUGHED at! I don't know whether or not this boss lost his job, but he certainly SHOULD have.

After this went down and after they realized what had happened, the Plaza eliminated all of their pitch games; even the single deck was thereafter dealt out of shoes.

 

[zoomie]

[ . . . ] After this went down and after they realized what had happened, the Plaza eliminated all of their pitch games; even the single deck was thereafter dealt out of shoes.

Haha. I've never seen SD or DD dealt from a shoe :laugh:

 

[WRX]

Haha. I've never seen SD or DD dealt from a shoe :laugh:

Mosey on down to the El Cortez.

 

[moo321]

A few days after it happened I got the story from someone in the know -

Without mentioning any names - It was a rather well known magician who works his act around town. He WASN'T cheating; he went in there as a BP for a hole card team. His bet size was 2 x $2000. They ended up beating them out of something in the area of high 5 figures, which for a small club like that is DEVASTATING.

The funny thing is, a certain floor walker happened upon the scene early in the play & tried to warn the shift boss what was going on, but was LAUGHED at! I don't know whether or not this boss lost his job, but he certainly SHOULD have.

After this went down and after they realized what had happened, the Plaza eliminated all of their pitch games; even the single deck was thereafter dealt out of shoes.

Wait, 5 figures devastated that place? Don't most casinos have millions in working capital?

 

[Billy C1]

Wait, 5 figures devastated that place? Don't most casinos have millions in working capital?

You beat me to it. I was thinking the same.

BillyC1

 

[Sucker]

Wait, 5 figures devastated that place? Don't most casinos have millions in working capital?

I said HIGH five figures, meaning closer to $100K than $10K. And yes; most casinos DO have hugh bankrolls and CAN afford losses this size. I didn't mean to imply that the win put them close to bankruptcy. It's just that when a downtown casino (or most of the smaller casinos,for that matter) take a hit like that, it totally freaks out management to the point that it scares them to DEATH; and sometimes they start implementing counterproductive countermeasures, which although are designed to cut their variance, oftentimes goes too far, whereby cutting into the casinos' overall bottom line. The resulting decline in the casinos' revenue then scares them even more, causing them to implement even MORE ridiculous countermeasures. The snowball effect from this can result in a vicious circle in which the whole casino starts and stays on the downslide. It gets to the point where even the legitimate high rollers notice the needless sweatiness and stop frequenting the place. What legitimate high roller would want to gamble in a place where all the bosses are always standing over their shoulder with a scowl on their face and sweating every little move they make?

AP's have a word for this: When an overly paranoid casino manager starts implementing these changes, the casino becomes what's known as "chickenshit". And because of this, sometimes "chickenshit" ends up BEING the precursor to "bankruptcy".

 

[Billy C1]

I said HIGH five figures, meaning closer to $100K than $10K. And yes; most casinos DO have hugh bankrolls and CAN afford losses this size. I didn't mean to imply that the win put them close to bankruptcy. It's just that when a downtown casino (or most of the smaller casinos,for that matter) take a hit like that, it totally freaks out management to the point that it scares them to DEATH; and sometimes they start implementing counterproductive countermeasures, which although are designed to cut their variance, oftentimes goes too far, whereby cutting into the casinos' overall bottom line. The resulting decline in the casinos' revenue then scares them even more, causing them to implement even MORE ridiculous countermeasures. The snowball effect from this can result in a vicious circle in which the whole casino starts and stays on the downslide. It gets to the point where even the legitimate high rollers notice the needless sweatiness and stop frequenting the place. What legitimate high roller would want to gamble in a place where all the bosses are always standing over their shoulder with a scowl on their face and sweating every little move they make?

AP's have a word for this: When an overly paranoid casino manager starts implementing these changes, the casino becomes what's known as "chickenshit". And because of this, sometimes "chickenshit" ends up BEING the precursor to "bankruptcy".

You can't be serious. 100k is peanuts to any bonafide casino. Naturally, they aren't happy to lose that amount at one time but they certainly realize that it's always a possibility and are prepared for it, I'm sure.
I know the Plaza isn't the LV Hilton but I recall seeing Larry Flynt (Of Hustler fame) waving a million dollar check around from Barry Hilton while proclaiming that it wouldn't be too painful for Barry.
All of the places of any size have plenty of cash on hand for the infrequent happenings. I would think the gaming commission requires it as part of licensing criteria.

BillyC1

 

[Lonesome Gambler]

I don't think the point is that the money hurt them for that particular day—the amount won was simply past their pain threshold, to the point where management felt the need to change the games to prevent something like that from happening again.

 

[shadroch]

I've heard it was several teams and the loss was well over $200,000 in a long weekend and resulted in both the Plaza and Vegas Club going to all-shoes. The owner of these clubs bought at the height of the market and vastly overpaid for them. It's a bit convoluted but bottom line is the vig on their loans is killing them.

 

[moo321]

I don't think the point is that the money hurt them for that particular day—the amount won was simply past their pain threshold, to the point where management felt the need to change the games to prevent something like that from happening again.

Ok, that makes more sense.

 

[Sucker]

I don't think the point is that the money hurt them for that particular day—the amount won was simply past their pain threshold, to the point where management felt the need to change the games to prevent something like that from happening again.

Thank you for so eloquently and simply putting into words what I was attempting (and failing horribly) to say. :grin:

Within days of this incident, the Plaza and their sister club Las Vegas Club eliminated ALL of their pitch games and went to shoes ONLY. I was there when this horror unfolded before my eyes.

 

[Billy C1]

I don't think the point is that the money hurt them for that particular day—the amount won was simply past their pain threshold, to the point where management felt the need to change the games to prevent something like that from happening again.

Which could mean that they don't belong in the business.

 

[shadroch]

Thank you for so eloquently and simply putting into words what I was attempting (and failing horribly) to say. :grin:

Within days of this incident, the Plaza and their sister club Las Vegas Club eliminated ALL of their pitch games and went to shoes ONLY. I was there when this horror unfolded before my eyes.

The switch to all shoe games is what got me playing there. At the time, it was the only face up DD game in Vegas and face up games are great for scavanger BJ and aided my counting as well.
As I wasn't HCing, I welcomed the change.