Wildwood Adopts Craps and Roulette Games to Gaming Line-Up
On January 29th, 2009, at Cripple Creek's first craps gaming table, all wagers were off Thursday, but that did not affect the game from commencing. The Amendment 50, which the state voters of Colorado approved on November 2009, permits the state's casino gaming towns, to improve their limits, expand casino gaming hours and offer craps and roulette to their gambling floor.
The changes are allowed to be implemented after July 1st, 2009 but the Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek is getting ready. Wildwood Casino general manager Kevin Werner already ordered a craps table and roulette table even before the voters in Cripple Creek gave their approval and this week, began training dealers. Each casino dealer will get about one hundred hours of training on the game of craps and then in March 2009, Werner plans to allow players to experience rolling the dice themselves-although there will be no actual betting until July 2009.
That will give players an opportunity to learn the rules of the game, in which players lay different wagers on the result of the dice. Werner said that there are a lot of people in the state of Colorado who have not experienced playing craps. Craps can be an intimidating game especially for people who are not familiar with the game. While the Wildwood casino is the first to take advantage of the changes, all of the Cripple Creek casinos are hoping for substantial returns from the Amendment 50.
Statewide, casino revenue slide down 12.3% in 2008-the only time that revenue has dropped since gambling in Colorado was allowed in 1991. With the weakening economy, 2009 was not turning out to be much better, but the brand new games and betting limits give the gaming industry on Colorado some hope. The Colorado Grande Casino is considering of constructing an additional area to house more casino table games, according to general manager Eric Rose.
Werner said that at the end of the day, what will really help the gaming industry is a good economy. Werner said that with five casino dealers for one gaming table, it is not given that craps will be a big money maker. Only the bigger Cripple Creek casinos plan to offer the games. But Werner said that craps is a fun game that adds to the excitement of the casino gaming floor. A customer at the Wildwood casino, Robert Jimenez believes that the new casino games will be a huge hit.
2009-02-22
Peter McCarthy
