table game hours at Tuscany

I just noticed the following on Tuscany's casino web page that I had not noticed before...

"Live games open daily 11am – 3am"

When I stayed there at the end of September 2019, I checked in at around 1 am local time, and I was on the blackjack table until around 4 am -- and the pit was not about to close at that time. During that stay, I know that the dice table closed at 3 am due to not having enough dice dealers to staff it around the clock. I had also seen the tables (at least blackjack) open before 11 am.

Unfortunately, I did not make time to stop by Tuscany earlier this month (I want to be able to commit at least 5-6 hours on property if I am going to be playing at a casino -- with at least four hours of that being time on device/table -- and I could not squeeze that in this time). For the table game hours to be reduced like this concerns me a bit -- since I really like the property and I want to see them do well. If the table game pit is having its hours cut like that (and what other properties in the Strip corridor or Downtown have such short pit hours -- or even any time at all when the whole table game pit is closed?), then other cuts could be on the way (or already be in place). Other recent changes at Tuscany I have heard about (but have not yet confirmed in person for myself)...

• new casino host (not sure if this is an additional host, or a replacement who is now their only casino host; for sure, they have no more than two hosts)
• no more loyalty club kiosks on the floor

 

Most likely they ran the numbers and realized that their pit was not profitable during those hours. Having live dealers, supervisors, security, cage staff, etc is very expensive to operate. Their table limits are not condusive to making much money. I've heard many times a $5 blackjack table loses money.

 

I’d be interested in playing craps there sometime.

 

This is probably about right. If you hypothesize a $5 table with all six spots filled (probably optimistic, especially overnight) and doing 60 hands/hour (also probably optimistic), then at a 2% house edge (likely around average assuming most people aren't playing perfect basic strategy, which they're not), then that's about $36/hour theo. But very few tables are going to be hitting that. And that's not a lot compared to the overhead required to keep a functioning table open.

I do think 11am is a bit late to be opening, especially depending on the day of the week, but limiting their hours makes a lot of sense given the manpower required.

 

Open for 16 hours, which is 2 eight hour shifts. Given their location, the games offered and the low table minimums it makes economic sense.

 

On my last trip to Vegas last month I was the only one in the pit at 6AM...I believe I lost about $100 per hour playing Pai Gow before I had breakfast at 8AM. There were about 6 dealers in the pit then on the graveyard shift. I figured that I easily covered the casino's cost for having the pit open, contributing $100 an hour to keep the place open...I think I covered the pit boss' hourly too..

 

True, but casinos don't really look at win/loss at that level, they care primarily about theo. You could have been winning $100/hour as well. And (this is going to sound incredibly ironic), casinos are not really in the business of gambling their own money!