In June 2013, Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson solidified his anti-online gambling stance in a Forbes editorial, calling the industry “fools gold.” Needless to say, the poker community was outraged at the blatant hypocrisy of the billionaire’s message and searched for ways to make their opinions known
Two years later, Adelson continues his aggressive push to block online gambling, leading us to wonder whether his crusade against the industry has since had any effect on interest in poker at the Venetian.

Using page view data provided by PokerAtlas.com, a website dedicated to cataloging, reviewing, and discussing live poker rooms and events, we can get a picture of how Adelson’s campaign has played out among poker players.

What the data suggests is that Adelson’s very public anti-online gaming position has had zero effect on interest of the poker room at the Venetian. In fact, in the months that the Sands CEO penned his Forbes editorial, visits to the PokerAtlas Venetian page increased by 10%. The bump, however, is expected, and likely due the increased interest in poker over the summer holiday.

From that 2013 high point, the numbers steadily declined, bottoming out in September with 54% fewer pageviews. In comparison, data from players seeking information on Aria shows a similar downward trend in September before steadily rising again and topping out in January 2014.

In June 2014, the Venetian again made headlines after prohibiting PokerNews from covering the Mid-States Poker Tour‘s Venetian stop, citing the site’s advertisement of online poker rooms.

PokerNews editor in chief Donnie Peters (pictured) responded, calling Adelson’s decision “another political stiff arm against our industry.” He continued, saying, “It is unfortunate that one man’s stance against poker holds such strength — and yes, I do mean poker as a whole and not just online poker, because Adelson is without a doubt hurting the overall growth of the game the more he fights against the virtual variant.”

Interest in the Venetian, however, continued to rise after that month and into the next year, topping out in March 2014. In May of that year, PokerAtlas’ overall traffic surged by over 130%, with hits to the Venetian page reaching a new high in June before slowly declining into the winter.

While the card room at the Venetian remains a popular poker destination, the club generates relatively little profit for its parent company in the big picture. Adelson has revealed that the lion’s share of Las Vegas Sands’ profits are made overseas at the company’s casinos in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

In fact, that government’s recent crackdown on corruption and money laundering, not poker room boycotts, has cut the Macau casino industry’s profits by nearly half in the past year.Adelson is facing possible graft charges in the US, charges which if true could jeopardize his gaming licenses.

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