A suprising development at the Las Vegas Hilton

First, a little background. Traditionally the game of blackjack is based on a payout of 3-to-2 for a player's two first cards of ace, ten (unless the dealer also has ace, ten). Such a hand is called a blackjack, indicating its singificance to the game.

A few years ago someone, probably an MBA, got the idea that you could pay less -- 6-to-5 -- for blackjack if you give players something in return for the lower payout. At first, that something was a single-deck game, which had disappeared from most casinos because it was too advantageous to good players.

More recently the 6-to-5 payout has spread to shoe games and games with rules that are less advantageous to the playes. In some cases the tradoff was entertainment, often in the form of sexy young women dealing and/or dancing. This was the case at the Las Vegas Hilton, which in the past few months installed a large pit with stages inside for young women to dance on. On recent visits I saw lots of players at these tables, which were all 6-to-5 games, some shoes, with minimums as high as $25. The players seemed happy and the money surely must have been rolling in.

Some imagine my surprise the other day when I walked through the main casino at the Hilton and saw empty carpet where the party pit had been. I decided to ask a floorman at the remaining pit what had happened. Surely, I said, the party pit was making money. Yes, he said, but many of the hotel's older customers didn't like it, and the casino decided to get rid of it.

I'm not sure exactly what to think of this development. I'm not a big fan of the party pits and would never play a blackjack game that pays 6-to-5. But I suspect that the bad games in casino subsidize the good ones, and I'm worried about what the Hilton might do to make up for the lost revenue.

I also don't know whether the Hilton did the right thing in respect to the customers who didn't like the party pit, or just made a business decision.

Whatever the motive behind it, the decision leaves a big hole on the Hilton's casino floor. I'll be interested to see what fills it.