Many poker players are leaving the confines of Las Vegas and heading to California which is now home to more than 170 casinos which are spread throughout the state. If you have read the UK gambling ‘tabloids’ then you know that many of the professional poker players are playing at the Bicycle Club and at the elegant Commerce Casino. While online poker is growing by leaps and bounds, another area is becoming the capital of poker and it’s not Las Vegas. The beautiful state of California is training tomorrow’s poker players and then keeping them in the state of California or so it seems. Some of the most competitive games in the country are found in California.

Except for the tribal casinos, most of the casinos in California are owned by individuals or corporations with high stake investments in California. A lot of the ownership in some of the UK casinos is held by smaller businesses. The Bicycle Club, one of the more popular casinos in Los Angeles is featured on ESPN and as a premiere host poker room for the World Series of Poker Tournaments. This casino and poker room has given poker the notoriety which it needed to become a mainstay in California. The Bicycle Club pulls in big names such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke and many other famous players in the world of poker. Another hit from the Bicycle Club is the Poker Babes Column, written by Shirley Rosario which enables UK bingo players to keep up with all of the latest news both in California and in Las Vegas and this column alone shows players that the poker is going on in California.

If you aren’t into poker, located also in Los Angeles is a traditional and famous horse park, The Hollywood Park; right outside of Los Angeles, this park promises non-stop gaming action for horse and dog track lovers. One of the largest names in casino gaming , Pinnacle Entertainment which was originally part of the Howard Hughes Corporation has direct ties in the casino gaming in California making the Howard Hughes Corporation once again a mainstay and a front runner in the casino gaming industry. Long after his passing, Howard Hughes still seems to find his way into gaming. And in California, casinos can count on another ‘sure thing’ especially since the Hughes name is indirectly associated with the casinos.

California’s casinos continue to offer some of the best poker tournaments world wide and the poker rooms and casinos are marketing to would be Las Vegas tourists. Junkets into LA keep tourists in California casinos when they normally would have been vacationing in Las Vegas. This brings up the question of whether or not Las Vegas can hold on to the gambling status it has held for so long throughout the world.

As the casinos continue to dot the California map, it’s obvious that many people are looking for other places to play outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The gaming industry has noticed a large crowd of loyal Vegas customers have planted themselves in California. Do you think it’s a sign of things to come? It’s possible and you know what? It’s likely.