Lee Jones: State lines, casinos and the new American poker landscape

It's not just Las Vegas and Atlantic City any more
Lee Jones poker writer
Lee Jones
Posted on: April 22, 2025 13:26 PDT

Back in the late 1980s, I can remember friends driving from North Carolina to Atlantic City so they could play casino poker. A nine-and-a-half hour drive. Somebody making that same drive today would have to pass 6-8 large casino properties before they got to AC. 

The United States still retains many of its puritanical attitudes about gambling, but the public, and to be fair, the casino operators, have spoken via state legislatures. Depending on how you count, 21 states have commercial casinos. 30-ish states have Tribal casinos – again, the exact number requires some semantic nuance. 

Federalism creates commercial opportunity

When I was a kid, we used to drive from our home in Maryland to visit my grandparents in Charlotte, NC. I still remember that headed back north, there would be a huge sign saying "Last cigarettes in North Carolina!" I had no idea what was going on (my parents didn't smoke), but would later learn that North Carolina didn't have a tax on cigarettes until 1969, but other states had huge cigarette taxes. In 1970, the cigarette tax in North Carolina was $.02 per pack; the tax in Massachusetts was $.15. For scale, a pack of cigarettes cost about $.48. This, of course, created a thriving cigarette black market, from which organized crime made millions.

The casino industry is no different. My wife's mother was raised and lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, hard by the Oklahoma border. Arkansas had no casino gambling. Early in our visits to Fort Smith, I learned that there was a Choctaw Casino just around the corner from my mother-in-law's house. How far was it from Arkansas?

How close is the Pocola Oklahoma casino to the Arkansas border? One and third football fields, give or take. How close is the Pocola Oklahoma casino to the Arkansas border? One and third football fields, give or take.

I'd wait until the house went to bed, then take I-540 west into the Oklahoma darkness for 12 whole minutes. I'd play poker in the five-table poker room until the wee hours, stop at the 24-hour Walmart on the way home, and there'd be fresh flowers in the kitchen when mom-in-law woke up. I was a popular son-in-law.

This adjacency is not a coincidence, and it's far from unique. Oklahoma and Nevada are both ringed with towns that have casinos but are within a stone's throw of states that don't have casino gambling. Virginia has gotten into the game with Danville (NC-adjacent) and Bristol (TN-adjacent). There are myriad such examples.

This trend can only continue. State legislators can pontificate about protecting their citizens from the evils of gambling. But as long as those citizens can drive five or ten minutes past the state line into evil states, those purer states are watching their residents' dollars go into slot machines in a neighboring state. While the opportunity cost of lost tax and employment revenue piles up.

Casinos are a blessing, even if a mixed one

I'm not going to suggest that dropping a casino into a town is a silver bullet for that town's economic ills. Problem gambling is an actual thing, and often the people who gamble the most are those who can afford it the least.

But particularly in the American East and Midwest, entire regions have lost their traditional economic base. I was recently in Danville and Bristol in Virginia. Both were originally mill towns, but the mills are generations gone. Casinos provide not only employment but also a career path for people who may not see an obvious way forward. 

The smokestacks don't generate revenue any more, the Caesars building does. The smokestacks don't generate revenue any more, the Caesars building does.

One of our dealers in Bristol used to do maintenance on refrigeration trucks. A fine and honorable occupation, but not one with much upside or career advancement. Now this fellow is developing a skill that translates across the entire United States. If he's eager and competent, he can advance through the casino management ranks. 

The same is true for people working as cashiers, security, hospitality, all of it. Again, I'm not a shill for the casino industry, but it employs 1.8 million people, and provides wages and salaries of $100 billion every year.

Suppose the jobs of your parents, their parents, and their parents before them are no longer available. The mill has been closed for decades, and young people are fleeing the community. Learning to deal poker, supervise a cashier cage, or manage a bustling hotel check-in operation — that's economic hope for you and your family.

Poker is closer than ever

Thanks to the expanding casino trend, the average distance from any given American to legal casino poker is rapidly shrinking. Which is a great sign for the future of poker. I doubt it will happen, but I'd love to see the live poker operators in the US band together and create a marketing campaign to remind people of this. 

We all know that Americans are playing poker in dens and dining rooms throughout the country. And, unfortunately, they're also going to underground games that span the spectrum from 'a bit shady' to 'downright terrifying.' Those underground games often have usurious rake, which may be the least of the patrons' concerns.

It doesn't have to be that way – there is probably legal poker nearer you than you think.

I came across this map of all the casinos in the U.S. It's not completely accurate (e.g. it doesn't show Danville, VA), but it gives a sense of the ubiquity of American casinos, which often includes poker.

If you're not sure if there's poker near you, check out that map. Ask around — there might be a small or large poker room much closer than you think. 

The poker road trip, writ small

This shortening of the distance between poker rooms has created the opportunity for a road trip to visit different poker destinations. But one that doesn't involve an airplane. Or, at most, one plane to the starting point and another one from the terminus.

I am currently nearing the end of a road trip that started in Danville, Virginia, and ended in Franklin, Kentucky. I visited and played in three different poker rooms: Caesar's Virginia in Danville; Hard Rock in Bristol, Virginia; and the Barrel Social Club in Franklin, Kentucky.  

The poker was great, and it's a fine way to spend the evening hours. But if you don't mind being in a car (I don't) then the lines between the dots are almost as much fun.

Audio book? Check. Diet Mountain Dew? Check. Let's roll. Audio book? Check. Diet Mountain Dew? Check. Let's roll.

About half of the route was 'blue highways,' the roads off the Interstates. They were twisty, and sometimes slow, but there was diversity, and the chance to stop and experience.

You don't get this view from an Interstate or an airplane. You don't get this view from an Interstate or an airplane.

It's not hard to visualize a similar road trip in Texas, California, Florida, or even Oklahoma, to be fair. Though that last one might be too much monotonous flat for me. A properly mapped tour up the East Coast could hit 8-10 poker rooms without difficulty, and if you avoided the Interstates, it could be a fascinating journey through the region.

Now I've got me thinking about the next one — all gone to look for the American poker room.

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