The original home of the World Series of Poker, Binion’s Gambling Hall in Downtown Las Vegas is legendary in the eyes of many poker players. But as gamblers shifted their attention from Fremont Street to the Las Vegas Strip, the casino has seen a marked decline in visitors. Now, it’s coming under fire for canceling several guarantees in its 2015 Binion’s Poker Opendue to a disappointing number of entrants.

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“Due to very low attendance, we have elected to cancel the guarantee on our Binion’s Poker Open Events,” the poker room said on its Facebook page. The casino will, however, honor the guarantees for its $200 No Limit Hold’em $10,000 Guarantee along with the $50,000 Guaranteed PPC Poker Tour event. All other events will run as normal, they said, just without their original guarantees.

The change was brought to light by Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, who made his displeasure clear in a post on 2+2. “This is unprecedented in Las Vegas and may even be a gaming violation,” he griped.

The series is slated to run from September 18 to October 4 and features 17 events including No Limit Hold’em, HORSE, and Limit Omaha 8. The events and their guarantees were modest, with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $300.

That mattered little in the eyes of many forum posters, who called it unacceptable that the casino cut guarantees at the last minute. “It’s really sad to see this happen at Binion’s,” said one person. “When I first learned about poker, the olds talked about Binion’s as this sort of ‘gambler’s casino’ where they followed the gamblers code, where you could always get a fair bet or whatever. It’s not the kind of place I would envision them stripping away guarantees.”

Others were more sympathetic to the casino, lauded as the creator of the WSOP in 1970. “Does it suck that they canceled the guarantees? Yes, of course it does,” said a former Binion’s dealer. “If the alternative is for an already struggling poker room to bleed thousands of dollars a day and then be faced with whatever consequences that brings from casino management, well, I’m not sure which is worse.” A picture of the 1976 WSOP at Binion’s is shown (image courtesy UNLV).

In the poker room’s defense, the fine print for the series does seemingly give it the right to make changes as it sees fit. “Binion’s management reserves the right to cancel or amend the schedule at any time,” it reads.

And as one user highlighted, no one had yet bought into the guarantees that were later canceled. “There is a difference between canceling a guarantee after people have bought in and canceling it with notice,” he said. “Does it look bad, yes, but for some people to act like they have somehow been screwed… doesn’t make sense to me.”

Binion’s struggles to fill poker tournaments is in stark contrast to the early days of poker’s explosion in popularity, when the venue couldn’t accommodate all those hoping to play in the WSOP. In 2005, the series was sold to Harrah’s (now Caesars), which began hosting the prestigious tournament at the much larger Rio All-Suite Casino and Hotel.

In response to the cancellation on the Binion’s poker room Facebook page, some players pulled no punches. “You thought you had very low attendance before you canceled the guarantees,” said one poster. “What do you think attendance will be now? Should be called Binion’s hall of shame!

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