In Illinois, you still have to visit a licensed brick-and-mortar casino if you want to hit up a craps table legally. Residents of the state, especially its northwestern part, will soon have another option for doing so.
The temporary Hard Rock casino in Rockford, Illinois, plans to open its first craps table to the public on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023. It could help the casino keep pace in Illinois’ robust market for casino gaming.
Hard Rock’s table games ready to play new tune
According to Jeff Kolkey of the Rockford Register Star, it’s been eight months since table games like blackjack and roulette first became available at the temporary casino in Rockford. On Friday, craps will join them for the first time.
While there will be just one craps table, that will expand the number of gaming tables on the casino’s floor to 10. Other games include Mini-Baccarat, Three Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
For players looking for other options, the casino offers 625 slot machines.
This might be the extent of the expansion of gaming options at the temporary casino. Hard Rock plans to open its permanent facility which is currently under construction in August 2024.
In the meantime, offering craps could draw some attention to the temporary facility.
Illinois casino patrons love playing craps
Hard Rock’s push to offer craps makes sense when you look at the numbers and the landscape of Illinois casinos. In October, craps was the third-highest-grossing table game for Illinois’ 15 casinos as a whole.
Additionally, offering only one table for the game isn’t too much of an outlier. A total of 11 of the 15 casinos offer just one or two craps tables to guests. Some of them are among the regularly highest-grossing casinos in the state.
The Hard Rock in Rockford ranks in the middle of the pack usually. It was ninth out of 15 in terms of adjusted gaming revenues in November 2023, for example. Offering craps could make a difference.
This is the same casino that broke a state record with 45,000 guests in its opening month.
The availability of craps might give more of those people a reason to return more often. If that occurs, it will be a happy holiday season for the casino in Rockford.