Golden Gate to Replace All Live Table Games with Electronic Table Games
We recently shared the news Golden Gate casino will close its lone remaining craps table, but we missed the forest for the trees.
The casino has confirmed it is, in fact, removing all its live table games. In our lifetime. Golden Gate.
Have you ever written a blog post while in the throes of psychogenic shock? It ain’t easy, so we’ll keep it short. Please feel free to refer to our previous post about the dice table.
As expressed previously, the demand for live table games is declining while the cost of operating table games is rising. Here’s some math.
Some casinos, like Casino Royale, removed their live table games entirely. Others have switched to “hybrid” games, like Silver Sevens. Many casinos now have a mix of live table games, hybrid games and electronic table games or ETGs.
After publishing our story about the demise of craps at Golden Gate, we received this statement from Circa Hospitality Group: “Big changes are coming to the Golden Gate, and we couldn’t be more excited. As the oldest hotel in Las Vegas, we’ve always embraced the future, and now we’re reimagining our casino floor with a high-energy electronic table games pit unlike anything downtown has seen. Expect more excitement, faster gameplay, and all the newest machines. All of our table games team members at the Golden Gate are being offered roles at Circa or the D, or the opportunity to explore new departments within the company.”
We’ve been covering Las Vegas for more than a decade, so it’s tough to surprise us. In this case, surprise is an understatement.
It could be argued Golden Gate is the most Las Vegas casino, ever.
The idea an iconic, old-school casino will be without live table games rejiggers one’s reality and understanding of what casinos are, and what they will be moving forward.
If it were anywhere else, we’d say they’re nuts, but we know quite a few Circa and Golden Gate and The D (all owned by Derek and Greg Stevens) executives, and they know what they’re doing.
The business case for this change is nuanced and complicated, so naturally we don’t really understand it.
Beyond the simple economics (every machine and every game in any casino gets a frequent and ongoing cost/benefit analysis), this change speaks to some cultural changes nobody anticipated. People don’t love interacting with people all that much anymore, at least not the people who are visiting casinos.
Habits and preferences have changed since the pandemic. More people are having their food delivered, rather than grocery shopping. When was the last time you went to a Meetup? Many people don’t go to an office anymore. The world is weird.
People act like interacting with robots to check in at a hotel or to check a bag is a bad thing, but a lot of people actually like that more than the human interaction. Robots replaced service bartenders at Las Vegas casinos several years ago. They’re doing the jobs of security guards, too. There’s more to come.
ChatGPT summarizes the reasons for the pivot away from live table games toward electronic table games thusly: 1. Social Anxiety & Reduced Social Friction, 2. Desire for Control Over Pace, 3. Lower Economic Barrier to Entry, 4. Familiarity With Screens & Digital Interfaces, 5. Perception of Fairness & Privacy, 6. Convenience & Consistency, 7. The Post-Pandemic Shift.
A.I. did a great job, but a human casino enthusiast would never have created a list with seven items because it’s bad luck. On a related note, how do we still have a job?
Here’s how ChatGPT explained the cultural shift following COVID: “COVID didn’t just change public health—it rewired expectations. Self-checkouts, delivery apps, and chatbots normalized the idea that fewer human touchpoints mean fewer hassles. That mindset now spills into gambling, where electronic table games offer the same predictability: no unpredictable dealers, no judgment from other players, no social pressure. What once felt cold and impersonal now reads as streamlined and efficient—a feature, not a flaw, in the post-pandemic casino experience.”
Casinos use analytics to decide their game mixes, and Golden Gate’s table game demand has declined over time. This is what’s next.
The ETGs on the second floor of Circa are apparently doing extraordinarily well.
The thought is empty table games drain the energy from a casino floor, ETGs will give Golden Gate a boost in that regard.
The bad news: Golden Gate, the first Las Vegas casino to have dancing dealers, will no longer have dancing dealers.
The good news: Nobody’s going to lose their jobs due to the change. All the dealers and dancing dealers will be absorbed into Circa and The D, unless they bail because they don’t like making more money.
More good news: ETGs have lots of benefits. Lower minimums. They’re less daunting to new players. You can play at your own speed, without the pressure of knowing what you’re doing. Less jargon. Fewer players angry at you because you bought in during a roll or let the dice hit you or you stood on 14 against a 10.
More good news for a casino: ETGs don’t call in sick, they don’t take breaks or need health insurance. The cost savings is significant.
Bookmark this blog post so you can check back in 10 years and see whether we were right when we predicted you won’t be able to find live table games in most Las Vegas casinos in 2035. Don’t shoot the messenger. Casinos follow customer trends, they don’t set them. It’s you that’s changed.
The ETG update at Golden Gate is expected to be complete by the end of August 2025.
We’re told this decision has been discussed for several years by the owners and management of Circa. It’s being discussed by every casino these days.
We’re going to need some time to adjust.
Go hit those tables at Golden Gate while you still can, and enjoy that bouncy felt on the craps table. You can get an eye patch at the ABC Store.
Update (8/9/25): The response to our story has been lively, much of it leaning negative, as people share their fond memories of playing table games at Golden Gate (we have many of our own).
We prodded Golden Gate owner Derek Stevens to share more about the reasoning behind the move, and he has some insights worth considering.
Stevens said, “We still get people who ask me if we are going to bring back deep fried Twinkies. My response has never changed: we’re thinking about it. Eventually people move on, particularly if you give them a great product. With what we are doing at Golden Gate, we have the ability to be a leader and create one of the coolest vibes in Vegas.”
He’s referring to past criticism he and his team have received about pretty much any change they’ve made. In this case, the Twinkies were served at Mermaids (which stood where Circa is now), a gross little casino beloved by millions of Las Vegas visitors. We liked it ironically. We had the last deep fried Oreo ever served there. It remains undigested.
Anyway, the point is people are nostalgic about just about everything. They miss La Bayou (a slot joint famous for its hangovers, Stevens acquired it for a Golden Gate expansion), the demolition of Las Vegas Club, the renaming of Fitzgerald’s (now, the D).
People didn’t watch the Show in the Sky at Rio, but they miss it. Ditto the pirate show at TI. Even if they watched, they didn’t spend anything in the casino. There’s a lot of bemoaning happening.
Stevens continues, “We have seen what is happening in these high limit slot rooms around town. We are creating an entire casino with a high limit slot vibe, yet you don’t need to be a high limit player to enjoy. And we have a perfect bar in the middle of all the action.”
We actually weren’t aware of what’s happening in high limit slot rooms around town, but apparently they’re all the rage and have become hot spots to party. We need to get out more.
Stevens also speaks to a larger trend casinos should pay attention to: “I always thought slots were for older people but it’s changed, dramatically, over the last decade. Young people love, love, love these electronic slots. All types of them. The high limit slot rooms around town have become the newest places to hang out. Some places like Aria now have two in their property. We are building the newest thing people don’t know they want, and when you do that, some people hang onto the past because they can’t envision a different and better future. I know we hit the target on this, but it’s a target no one else can see right now.”
Our kneejerk reaction is, “You don’t know what we want, you’re not our mom.”
Then again, as we reflect upon our own gambling habits, we realize it’s been years since we’ve played live table games. Yet we love them, or thought we did.
Come to find out, we are one of our fellow youths.
Our tastes changed and we weren’t even really aware of it.
Some of this touches upon tectonic shifts in our society, largely fallout of the pandemic and the ultimate brain mucker-wither, smartphones.
There was a Tweet that got a lot of impressions that dips its toe into the changes happening with the youths.
Christ this data is so grim:
"The troubling decline in conscientiousness. A critical life skill is fading out — and especially fast among young adults." pic.twitter.com/gOKhcpzAaB
— Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin) August 8, 2025
Attitudes are changing. Our habits and preferences are changing. Why would anyone think casinos are immune from such changes? If people are becoming less outgoing or gregarious, that has an impact on how they spend their time and money.
It’s a little odd putting Golden Gate at the center of this discussion, as it may not be indicative of most casinos: It’s very small, so it can’t really afford to stick with games that aren’t making much just for old time’s sake.
The analogy to buffets is a pretty good one. People love buffets. They lose money. They aren’t coming back.
Derek Stevens and his team live and breathe the casino business. The Stevens brothers invested heavily in downtown, and downtown Las Vegas owes them a debt. Yes, the drink prices are higher now and downtown’s slots are tighter than The Strip’s now, but downtown is vibrant and growing as The Strip is facing serious challenges.
Backlash to changes is amplified online. The jury is out on the removal of live table games at Golden Gate until we see what’s next. Derek Stevens and his team are “excited,” we are “cautiously optimistic” and possibly “Casino Royale jumpy.”
Charlene L. on Twitter said, “Golden Gate with live tables feels like Sinatra without the suit.”
We’re guaranteed to play craps at Golden Gate before its table shuts down, and will definitely try a little roulette as well. We might try and be there for the wheel’s final spin to note the number for posterity.
The final roulette spin at Tropicana was 3 red. The last roulette spin at Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall was 7 red.
Everything isn’t ruined. We’re just getting started on the denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It’s harder to move past “denial” because, of course, casinos are moving away from live tables to ETGs, BUT THIS IS GOLDEN GATE! Oh, wait, we’re moving into anger. Deep breaths.
Actually, there needs to be a new stage of grief: Hard ways. Somewhere between “depression” and “acceptance,” probably.
More to come.
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