Why These Canada Poker Rooms Charge Absurd Rake But Remain Packed
Table Of Contents
Poker players in Toronto, Canada, can get coffee and donuts for the whole family from Tim Horton's for less than what they pay in rake at local casinos.
The rake issue has been ongoing across Ontario, Canada's most populous province, with over 14 million residents. But the players keep showing up to pay the 10% up to $20 rake, even in $1/$3 games that are tough, if not impossible, to beat for much.
PokerNews' Ontario ambassador, Kyle Anderson, a Toronto native and avid poker player, recently ranted about his thoughts on Ontario rake.
"It's not only just bad, it's criminal," Anderson said of Ontario cash game rake. "It's horrific here, especially when you compare it to literally anywhere else in the world."
Poker in Canada Versus Poker in Las Vegas
Anderson isn't kidding. Take Las Vegas, considered the gambling capital of the world, for example. Sin City boasts over 20 card rooms, none of which collect even half as much as most rooms in Ontario. Bellagio, Aria, Wynn, and Venetian, the most popular poker rooms in the city, cap rake for the low-stakes games at $5-$6, depending on the room.
Las Vegas poker rooms that offer various high-hand or bad beat jackpots will charge an extra $1-$3 for the jackpot drop. But even those card rooms don't come close to the rake in Ontario, and many low-stakes players in Vegas complain about how high the rake has gotten in the past few years.
Toronto, Daniel Negreanu's hometown, has a large poker community. Other talented pros such as Daniel Dvoress, Mike Watson, Mike Leah, and the Greenwood brothers are from the area.
But today's up-and-coming grinders are forced to play in rooms such as Great Canadian Casino, where rake, even in the $1/$3 games, is collected at 10% of the pot up to $20. The excessive rake doesn't go back to the players in other ways. Comps can't be earned while playing poker, and drink service isn't even available.
Toronto, Canada's largest city, isn't the only city in Ontario that uses the $20 cap rake structure. Pickering Casino Resort in Pickering, ON, a Great Canadian Entertainment property, collects the same amount in rake. Great Canadian's other Ontario poker room — Elements Casino in Brantford — is a bit cheaper, but still higher than most places in the world, with a $15 cap.
"If you play around 25 to 30 hands an hour, the table's getting drained of about $400 to $600 per hour," Anderson explained. "You're basically an unwinnable game where the house wins no matter what."
Ontario's poker rake is not only extreme compared to the rest of the world, but also the rest of Canada. Playground in Quebec, one of the most popular card rooms in North America, for example, caps rake in the low-stakes games at $8. While that might seem a bit high in comparison to places such as Las Vegas, Playground is home to many of the largest poker bad beat jackpots in history. The players get a chunk of that rake back in jackpots.
How Toronto Poker Rooms Get Away with High Rake
The reason that poker players in the greater Toronto area continue showing up to play despite the "criminal" rake, Anderson explained, is due to a lack of competition.
Ontario, which has its own set of online gambling laws separate from the rest of Canada, has multiple popular online poker sites, such as GGPoker and PokerStars. But the Toronto area only has two brick-and-mortar card rooms. There simply are limited options, and the casinos know it.
Poker players in Ontario do have one slightly better option, and that is Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls. This poker room doesn't collect rake out of every pot, and instead charges players $7 for every half hour. That's still high in comparison to most places, but less than a winning player would pay up in Toronto, which is about a 90-minute drive away.
Toronto's poker rooms aren't having trouble retaining players. The rooms are often packed, especially during peak hours.
"If they can continue getting numbers like this at $20 per hand, and the players keep showing up, why would they stop?" Anderson asked.
The options for poker players in Toronto are to keep playing and paying the $20 capped rake, play poker online, or just not play poker at all unless they travel elsewhere.
