Do you pay to sit at a table?
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There are basically 2 ways.
1. Most casinos take a ‘rake’ from each hand which is generally 3 – 10% of the pot. It is usually capped so big pots don’t make them a lot more.
2. For tournaments and at some casinos there is a simple fee to enter or to play for a period of time.
I guess the third is that by bringing people in to play poker they will generally also spend money elsewhere, whether it is gambling or just buying food and beverage etc.
There are variants of poker which are played against the dealer, similar to Black Jack. A lot of casino pokers are also tournaments where you pay to enter the tournament and then the winners of the tournament get a cash prize. Some poker tables might also have a fee to enter as you mention. Others might be free to enter but there are no free drinks so you are expected to buy your own drinks and tip generously. The casino often have the poker tables as a way to get people through the doors so they can make money on other games. A lot of gamblers prefer to start off the night with skill games like poker before moving on to more luck based games such as Roulette or Black Jack later in the night. The casino will accept the loss of revenue on the poker table as long as they recover it later in the night.
The casino generally takes a rake from each pot.
Alternatively I’ve also been at tables where every dealer change, all players on the table would have to put out a set amount, maybe $10 or so. So this way it brings in about $150 per hour.
Even on online casinos with slot games, there is usually a 96% return to player rate, but due to high volumes of players, they will still get a profit
Typically you pay just to play. But no Casino’s don’t make money on the betting going on in poker. Which is why even in a casino, poker is illegal in some states.
Casino Pit Boss here,
Cash games are either raked (X% capped at $X taken from each pot) or time charge (X$ per player per hour)
Tournaments have a portion of the buy in going to the house so a $220 buy in would be $200 to the prize pool and $20 to the casino.
With casinos, some games are loss leaders. Meaning the casino makes very little money on them. But they are a way to get people In the door and while they are there, they will spend money on other stuff.
What everyone is saying about buy-ins and the rake is correct, but I’d like to add one extra method.
In the UK, when I worked as a croupier (briefly 20 years ago mind), we dealt a form of poker that was like video poker and played only against the dealer.
Cards were dealt, and money was paid out on odds depending on the strength of the hand. I’m struggling to remember the name or whether there was a single card exchange (like video poker) though.
Since 2007 Casino Hold-em is another game played only against the dealer and licensed in the UK.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_hold_%27em
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Rake: Most casinos take 10% of the pot (capped at $5) plus 1 or 2 dollars in promotional rake.
Some casinos do time rake, especially for higher limit games. That usually varies between $6-$12 (Yup, the King’s Lounge games had extremely high time rake!) per half hour/dealer change. These games typically don’t qualify for promotions such as the Bad Beat Jackpot or High Hands.
You also essentially pay for the dealers as it’s expected to tip at least a dollar each time you win the hand. (I’ve tipped as much as a $100 before).
As for tournaments, they take a portion of every entry fee as “rake,” and that’s how the casino profits from running tournaments.
These factors are why winning in the long run at Poker is incredibly difficult. Most people don’t realize that essentially $150 is leaving the table EVERY HOUR.
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