Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem halted its $93 million expansion this week, which including a new poker room, casino floor space, and restaurants. The Las Vegas Sands Corp, current owners of the Pennsylvania casino, are in the midst of selling the property for $1.3 billion to MGM Resorts International. Jun 07, 2010 Wind Creek Bethlehem (formerly Sands CasinoResort) (Bethlehem, PA) Anyone with questions about the Poker room at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem post them here. I with follow up with answers as soon as possible. Opening day is pending state approval but should be around July 7-9. A schedule of Sands Bethlehem poker tournaments, including time, buy-in, blind structure, and more. You also can find Sands Bethlehem phone number, address, and website info.
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- Sands Casino Poker Room Bethlehem
In 2003, former accountant Chris Moneymaker sparked a nationwide poker boom after winning the World Series of Poker Main Event through an online satellite. At the time though, PA card players didn’t have a convenient place to enjoy live poker legally inside the state, and were relegated to making long trips to the poker rooms at Borgata, Foxwoods and elsewhere.
The following year, PA lawmakers passed landmark legislation allowing for the construction of several casinos and authorizing limited forms of gambling, like slot machines. Unfortunately, the bill did not include provisions for table games like poker, or casino staples such as blackjack and craps.
That all changed in 2010, when Pennsylvania casinos and racinos were given the green light to offer peer-to-peer poker along with a wide array of table games.
Now, Commonwealth poker players have their pick of 10 poker rooms, scattered throughout the territory, and are choosing to spend their money at local casinos instead of taking their cash out of state. With the passage of a new online gambling law, they will soon have the opportunity to play online as well.
The addition of poker and table games has, in short order, helped turn Pennsylvania’s gambling industry into the second largest in the US, behind only Nevada.
Here we take a closer look at each of PA’s brick-and-mortar poker rooms, highlighting what they have to offer in terms of cash games and tournaments, signature series, amenities and more.
Parx Casino
Parx’s poker room is widely considered to be the state’s premier poker destination, and is by far the biggest and most profitable in PA.
In 2018, the casino completed a $50 million expansion which included the construction of a brand-new 48-table, state-of-the-art poker venue. Patrons can now enjoy their favorite games surrounded by high-end finishes and nearly two dozen high definition TVs.
The room now also features a VIP poker “enclave” for highrollers, or anyone brave enough to take a shot at high-stakes.
Parx’s cash game selection is second to none in the state. Casual players will have no trouble finding low to mid-stakes No Limit and PLO games, and can even jump into one of several $10/$10 NLHE tables which run most nights.
$15/$30 Limit games get going most evenings as well, with bigger Mixed games coming together during high-traffic hours. $6/$12 O/E and $10/$20 Big O/SuperStud are also popular games, which generally can’t be found at other PA poker rooms.
Parx is well-known for its Big Stax tournament series, and offers the chance to make a nice score in nightly tournaments as well.
Parx will be bringing its brand into the online realm when PA online gambling sites get the green light to launch later this year. The company inked a partnership deal with gambling software provider GameAccount Network back in 2015, which will power the casino’s iGaming sites.
Sands Bethlehem
Sands Casino is home to PA’s second-highest grossing brick-and-mortar poker room, which boasts a total of 30 tables.
Players can always find $1/$2 and $2/$5 NLHE tables running, with higher stakes action kicking off sporadically, especially on weekends. Omaha, Limit Hold’em, and Stud games also come together, but do not run as regularly.
Tournament players will enjoy nightly events at Sands and special series like the DeepStack Extravaganza.
The poker room is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a dozen plasma TVs, and offers massage service along with complimentary beverages.
As one of the top poker operators in the state, Sands would be well-positioned to open its own poker site under PA’s new online gambling law. Company CEO Sheldon Adelson, however, is a staunch opponent of iGaming and has spent a great deal of resources in an effort to shut down the industry entirely. That said, it’s difficult to imagine that Sands will be opening its own online poker site anytime soon.
SugarHouse Casino
SugarHouse Casino’s Poker Night in America poker room lies 60 miles south of Sands, and is a popular choice for grinders in Philadelphia and beyond.
The venue boasts 28 tables and offers mostly low stakes NLHE, with the option to play PLO and a few other variants a couple of times a week. Chances of winning online slots.
Tournaments run on most days, and currently feature a $5,000 guarantee. The room is also known for its Sugar Rush Challenge, a special $250 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed event.
The card room is the home of Poker Night in America, a CBS Sports Network television series which broadcasts marquee poker tournaments from around the country.
SugarHouse is owned by Rush Street Interactive, which operates the successful SugarHouse Casino online gambling site in New Jersey. The casino will almost certainly open up its own online casino in its home state as well, which could include a virtual poker room.
Rivers Casino
For poker players living in Western Pennsylvania, or in neighboring Ohio, Rivers is by far the most attractive option. Located on the Ohio River, the casino’s poker room boasts 30 tables and is the fourth highest grossing room in the state.
No Limit players will always find a few smaller stakes tables running, with $5/$10 and $10/$20 games ramping up during the busier hours. PLO tables come together occasionally, as do lower stakes Limit Hold’em games.
The card room is known to offer occasional freerolls, along with a $10K “Full House Ladders” promotion and High Hand awards.
Tournament players can take their pick of two daily events, six days a week, with an additional tournament added on Saturdays.
Like SugarHouse, Rivers is run by Rush Street Gaming, and will very likely dip its toes into the online gambling waters using software created by its in-house iGaming development team.
Harrah’s Philadelphia
Situated on the Delaware River in Chester, Harrah’s poker room is stocked with 28 tables, which spread mostly No Limit and Limit games. Stakes tend toward the lower end, with $2/$6 Limit Hold’em, and $1/$2 – $1/$3 NLHE being the most commonly spread games.
Apart from the two tournaments the casino runs daily, Harrah’s offers the chance at winning a seat into the World Series of Poker Main Event in live satellites, through its affiliation with the WSOP.
In addition, patrons can win extra cash during High Hand promotions and through a Bad Beat Jackpot which triggers when quad 2s or higher go down in flames. A number of modestly priced run throughout the week, with buy-ins topping out at $95.
Harrah’s is owned by Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which is extremely active in the online gambling industry in New Jersey and Nevada. In both states, Caesars has partnered with 888 to power the WSOP.com online poker network. Harrah’s will no doubt open up their own iGaming site, likely using the same software.
Hollywood Casino at Penn National
Offering just 17 tables, the game selection at Hollywood Casino is not nearly as diverse as some of its competitors. You will, however, find $1/$2 NLHE games running consistently, higher stakes NLHE games running primarily on the weekends. Limit and PLO tables run a few times per week.
The room spreads tournaments Monday-Saturday and offers a Bad Beat Jackpot which can grow into the six figures.
Mohegan Sun Pocono
Mohegan Sun Pocono boasts a poker room that is slightly larger than Hollywood’s, yet over the years it’s taken in significantly less revenue. Of late, however, the room appears to be on the upswing, with as many as 20 games running on weekends. The most common game is by far $1/$2 NLHE, but Limit and PLO games do run with some frequency.
The card room is a non-smoking venue, which features a Bad Beat Jackpot and a Royal Flush Jackpot promo.
Players can choose from two daily tournaments, which include Rebuys, Deepstacks, Bounties and Turbos. However, high stakes players may be disappointed with the selection, as the only time Mohegan supports MTTs with buy-ins of $100 or greater is on Fridays and Saturday.
Mohegan Sun operates its own online casino in the Garden State and will likely participate in the PA iGaming market, perhaps in a partnership with PokerStars.
The Meadows Racetrack & Casino
The Meadows is located less than an hour’s drive south of Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, its closest geographical competitor. The card room features just 14 poker tables, but offers a view of live horseracing which can’t be beat.
The poker room offers both No Limit and Limit Hold’em games, occasionally spreading PLO. Tournaments run twice daily, Monday-Saturday, with events occasionally scheduled for Sundays as well.
The Meadows has also become an official stop on the Heartland Poker Tour, a televised poker tournament series.
Mount Airy Casino Resort
With just nine poker tables to choose from, cash game options at Mount Airy are severely limited, usually consisting of a few tables of low limit NLHE. Not surprisingly, the low traffic makes putting together a viable tournament essentially impossible.
Players do have the chance to win extra cash in occasional promotions, however, like the High Hand promo the room is running currently.
There have been musings that Mount Airy is going to move its poker room, which is currently sequestered in a difficult to find second story room, back onto its original location on the main casino floor. There, it thrived.
Presque Isle Downs
Located a short distance from Lake Erie, Presque Isle is the smallest and lowest earning cardroom in the state, featuring a meager seven poker tables.
Surprisingly, the room still manages to put together a tournament five or six days a week, some with surprisingly high buy-ins and guarantees. We do wonder how many of these MTTs actually get off though.
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This year, both Parx Casino and Sands Bethlehem completed major renovations of their card rooms, kitting them out with luxury furnishings, dozens of flat screen TVs and a bevy of other upgrades.
But while player reaction to the new spaces has been positive, the updated facilities have not grown the poker industry overall in the state. In fact, compared with the first six months of 2017, PA poker revenue is down just over 5%.
Parx revenue underwhelms
Located in Philadelphia, Parx is the undisputed king of poker in the Keystone State. In 2017, the casino raked in nearly $16 million, around $6 million more than Sands, its closest competitor.
In January, the property debuted its brand-new card room, now located in the main casino building, just a short distance away from banks of slots and table games. The poker room was part of a major expansion that included the Xcite Center, an entertainment venue built with the goal of attracting non-gamblers to the area.
The remodel also gave the casino the chance to trim the fat a bit, by cutting down its total tables from 80 to 48. The excess tables are not especially missed, as they mostly remained empty anyhow.
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While expectations for the room have been high, revenue since launch has not been especially impressive. From January to June of this year, the card room has banked slightly less than it did during the same timeframe in 2017. In fact, it has posted year-over-year losses in five of the six months it has been in operation.
There was a bright spot in March, however, when the overall take jumped by 20% Y/Y to $1,726,498. The bump coincided with the running of the casino’s popular Big Stax tournament series, which kicks off again this month, and which will certainly have another positive effect on earnings.
The following month, however, revenue slid once again, down 8.29% year-on-year.
Sands doesn’t move the needle either
Sands put the finishing touches on its own poker room in March, with the new digs opening to the public in April.
While welcomed by poker players, the Sands card room renovation was more about rearranging the gaming floor in order to add additional casino games to the previous poker area. With the move, the property can place 14 more traditional banking tables, 29 more stadium gaming terminals and 74 more slot machines in the space.
Like Parx, Sands hasn’t seen much of a benefit in terms of poker revenue since the April launch. During that time, the casino has raked in $2,660,476, over $1 million less than it did during the same period last year.
It’s also interesting to note that, starting in January 2017, the poker room saw eight straight months of year-over-year growth. But things have taken a turn for the worse, with monthly revenue decreasing for nine straight months beginning last October.
If it’s any consolation, June revenue was only down slightly, just 1.22% Y/Y. As more people discover the new room, that number could improve.
Sands Casino Bethlehem Pa Poker Room
Is Parx cannibalizing competitors?
Certainly the lavish new poker rooms have concerned competitors in surrounding areas.
In the case of Parx, SugarHouse and Harrah’s are the casino’s closest neighbors, and would have the most reason to worry. So did the new room have any effect on their bottom line?
Since the start of the year, SugarHouse has posted Y/Y losses in four of six months. Yet prior to that, the poker room saw monthly growth for seven straight months. In December, the SugarHouse card room was up 11.63% year–on-year, but when Parx launched, that number dropped to 3.86%. It continued to go downhill from there.
It’s plausible that the new Parx card room could have lured some SugarHouse players away.
Harrah’s poker revenue is also on a downward slide, but that began many months before Parx unveiled its new poker space. In the last year and a half, Harrah’s has only enjoyed two months of Y/Y increases, the latest coming in January. In April, May and June of this year its poker room has suffered double-digit monthly decreases.
As the poker room at Harrah’s has been underperforming for some time, it’s hard to say that Parx’s new room is the cause. Of course, it’s clear that, at the very least, the new digs would not have a positive effect.
The biggest loser
Hollywood Casino in Grantville, located about a two hour drive from Parx and a one hour drive from Sands, seems to have suffered the most from the launch of the two updated poker rooms.
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The casino’s card room was on a hot streak last year, regularly posting Y/Y gains in the 20-30% range. That began to change last August, but got much worse in January, when Parx opened its room open to the public.
From January to June 2017, Hollywood banked $343,658, while so far this year, it has only taken in $291,157. January began spelling big trouble for the poker room, and the bleeding hasn’t stopped since. In each of the first five months of the year, the casino has posted over 20% decreases in revenue, with the biggest coming in April, when Sands launched its own remodeled room.
It certainly likely that card players who had previously frequented Hollywood now favor driving out to Sands and Parx, to enjoy the new digs. Then again, considering that Parx and Sands aren’t exactly killing it since opening their new poker rooms, it could just be that Pennsylvania gamblers have lost some interest in poker, at least for now.
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Sands Casino Poker Room Bethlehem
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