Sunday, June 17, 2007

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So long Poker Dome: Mansion pulls plug

Party's over: Poker Dome marriage fails

By Christopher Hunt

With a three-year lease and grand intentions to broadcast 43 events a year, MANSIONPoker.net and the Fox Sports Network opened the Poker Dome - a custom-built, $12 million venue in Las Vegas - just last year.

The party's over already, however, with officials announcing Thursday MANSION has pulled its sponsorship and the venue will shut down.

In a report in the Las Vegas Sun Friday, the president of the company that holds the Poker Dome's lease, Rick Kulis, confirmed the demise of the Dome and the withdrawal of both MANSION and Fox Sports.

"We received word at the end of Season One that the network no longer wanted to produce the show," he said, adding the last show has been televised and the venue will be shut down as of August 1.

The actual set itself will stay intact, but the engineering and production booths will be converted back to the movie theaters from whence they came.

A representative for Neonopolis, the Las Vegas retail center that housed the Dome, also indicated Fox Sports has been let out of their lease.

No official word was given for MANSION's withdrawal, but speculation is the payback just wasn't there from the predominately American audience and publicity, given the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the inability for MANSION to accept American players.

The Poker Dome did, however, make it through one full season and some high-profile events, with Rodel Tuazon winning over $1 million in the Poker Dome Challenge and Gavin Smith taking $500,000 in the World Pro-Am Challenge.

It also managed to usher in a couple of interesting high-tech innovations, with built-in LED displays for the dealer button and players hooked up to heart monitors and their pulse rates in high-pressure situations displayed to the audience.

Related Articles:

Poker Dome Theater Officially Opens
Poker Presenter Wins Inaugural Poker Dome Challenge event

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