You said: "Most poker rooms in LV are down compared to last year. We started 2004 with 200 tables in LV. Today we have over 500."

That said, I don't think you could argue that there is more poker being played in Las Vegas than there was last year. With 300 new tables in town, you could pretty much forecast that the new rooms would be the more desirable venues in which to play, and that couldn't help but detract from the existing rooms.

"I'm told many of the TV ratings for poker is down. That comes from the production people."

I would think that the novelty of shows like "Celebrity Poker Showdown" had worn off... watching B-level celebrities playing bad poker wears thin after a while. Also, there have certainly been more and more tournaments being televised these days, and I'm sure they cannibalize each other to some extent. Not to mention that HIGH STAKES POKER has been a big breakout hit and I'd bet that watching that show makes most of the tournament broadcasts seem pretty prosaic. There are many valid reasons why a show's or a group of shows' ratings might be down without being a sign of the decline of poker.