Cardroom

Sign for a cafe and card room in Seattle

Acardroomorcard roomis agamingestablishment that exclusively offerscard gamesfor play by the public. The termpoker roomis used to describe a room incasinosthat is dedicated to playing poker and in function is similar to a card room.

Such rooms typically do not offerslot machinesorvideo poker,or other table games such ascrapsorrouletteas found in casinos. However, a casino will often use the term "cardroom" or "poker room" (usually the latter) to refer to a separate room that offers card games where players typically compete against each other, instead of against "the house".

Overview

In theUnited States,stand-alone cardrooms are typically the result of local or state laws and regulations, which often prohibit full-fledged casino gambling. This was typically the case inCaliforniauntil the advent of casino gambling offered byNative Americantribes in the 1990s, though card rooms continue to flourish and even expand there.

Since games played in card rooms are usually player-against-player instead of player-against-house, card room operators typically derive their revenues in one of two ways. In most situations, the dealer of each game (employed by the establishment) will collect arake,a portion of the pot from each hand. At other times, a charge will be levied against each player for a specific time period, typically each half-hour.

Though traditional poker variants such asTexas hold 'em,Omaha hold 'emandseven-card studare by far the most popular games offered by card rooms (and sometimes the only games), others may offer games such aspanguingue,pai gow,Chinese poker,and variations onblackjack.These so-called "California games", or "Asian games", may resemble such traditional casino games as blackjack,baccaratand evencraps,but have rules that comply with various state restrictions.

Most U.S. stand-alone card rooms are located inMontana,with more than two hundred such clubs licensed in 2013, and over four hundred licensed nationally.Californiahas the second most such clubs, with 88 such clubs as of 2013.California card rooms like theCalifornia Grand Casinodate back to the 1850s. Some are modest establishments with just a few tables, while others are the largest poker rooms in the world, offering as much as five times as many tables as the largestLas Vegascardroom. Some even call themselves "casinos", even though their lack of electronic and table games would normally disqualify the use of such a term by modern standards.Hollywood Park Casino,a casino located near and formerly part ofHollywood Park Racetrack,a formerThoroughbredrace trackinInglewood, California,has an elaborate card room on its premises. Other large cardrooms areBay 101andCasino M8trixinSan Jose,theCommerce CasinoinCommerceand theBicycle CasinoinBell Gardens.All these clubs host majorpoker tournaments,which attract the game's top players andtelevisioncoverage.

Poker rooms are sometimes operated illegally. New York City has been home to underground card rooms, some of which were the basis of the movieRounders.Two rooms with more than ten tables, the 14th Street PlayStation and the 72nd Street Players Club, were closed down by the police in 2005, but other smaller clubs continue to exist.

Websites offeringonline pokergames are referred to as "online cardrooms" rather than casinos.

See also

• List of casinos