Beer Pong Threatens Roulette At Some Las Vegas Casinos
added 27.09.2011, 10:41PM
Roulette is one of the classic casino games, but from the standpoint of 'the house' it's not a favorite despite a decent theoretical edge over the player. It takes too much specialized manpower to operate, it is to 'slow' relatively speaking and despite its cachet as a 'classy' casino game many players don't know the rules. In some casinos, it's become little more than an afterthought like the ubiquitous 'Big 6' wheel.
The game hasn't quite reached 'endangered species' status, but it could happen. At O'Shea's casino on the Las Vegas Strip and at several other competing properties an ever growing chunk of floor space is devoted to that college fraternity mainstay, beer pong. It's curious that a game designed more for getting sorority girls drunk has found a home in the gaming capital of the world but for whatever reason it has. It could be due to the poorly thought out effort to target the 'Jersey Shore' crowd that many casinos turned to almost in desperation during the economic downturn. Despite other signs that the unctuous trend is dying off, for now at least the beer pong remains at O'Shea's. In fact, its become such a popular attraction at the casino that management has promised to move it to other nearby properties while O'Shea's undergoes an extensive remodeling project as part of the 'Linq' development by Caesars Entertainment.
Beer pong does bring in a perfect demographic from the standpoint of the 'low rollers' casino--a young, energetic crowd that will then go on to lose money in the property's more traditional gaming options. The popularity of beer pong among the knuckledragger set has served to provide a 'unique marketing proposition' for the otherwise uninspired grind joint. It doesn't cost much for O'Shea's to operate and generates foot traffic and word of mouth.
It has served to revamp the traditional casino floor space, with the beer pong 'pit' taking up a good deal of square footage near the back of the casino adjacent to the food court. At this point it doesn't appear that its forced O'Shea's management to remove any of the more traditional components of the casino product mix--but, then again, O'Shea's has never been a 'full service' property. There's no sports book--only a self service Leroy's kiosk--and most of the floor space is taken up by a couple of large bars, along with the usual mixture of slot machines and blackjack tables.
It'll be interesting to see how the beer pong attraction is integrated into the casino redesign. It may be given a smaller role as Las Vegas refocuses its marketing efforts on a more traditional gambling demographic, but at the same time it could be given an even larger focus if Caesars Entertainment continues to go after the young, dumb and drunk market segment.
If the company decides to increase the size of the beer pong 'pit' it could spell the demise of some less 'hip' casino games including the Big 6 wheel and roulette. If that were to happen, online roulette could become the primary outlet for the game as other casinos follow suit in copying the decision of Caesars Entertainment.
