The off-Strip Silver Sevens casino has converted from traditional table games to “hybrid” tables. These tables have live dealers, but no chips, and all wagering is done through terminals.

During a recent visit, we not only checked out that intriguing twist, but also heard from several employees the casino’s plans to rebrand to Continental, including a return of Pink Taco, appear to have been put on indefinite hold.

Silver Sevens is operated by Affinity Gaming, the same company that owns three casinos in Primm—Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley Resort & Casino. Things are changing at those casinos as well, so gird up.

To begin, lots of casinos have electronic versions of traditional table games.

So-called “hybrid” games (ones that still have a live dealer) solve a number of challenges for casinos, their main benefit being cost savings on labor. It’s worth mentioning Silver Sevens has not let any dealers go due to the changes in its table games.

The biggest selling point for players? Low table minimums.

The biggest difference overall is these games are chipless. Cue the sad trombone for all the chip collectors out there. (Although, if you already have chips from a casino that moves to chipless, the value of your collection just went up.)

In many cases, hybrid games are a compromise so a casino doesn’t have to shut down its table games pit completely, as has happened at several casinos in recent years.

Casino Royale’s table games have yet to return. Tuscany bailed on table games until they returned recently. Railroad Pass, in Vegas-adjacent Henderson, also dumped its table games.

Our friends at Vegas Advantage have done an excellent job of keeping an eye on these trends. They were the first to share the changes at Silver Sevens and at the casinos in Primm as well.

The terminology about what’s happening at these casinos can be confusing. The headline at Vegas Advantage says, “Live Table Games No Longer Dealt in Primm.” All these hybrid games have dealers, though. They’re still live games. Some refer to them as “dealer-assisted” table games.

As most blackjack and roulette tables only have one dealer to begin with, the biggest change is for craps players.

At Silver Sevens, the table games pit now has one Shoot to Win Craps table (one dealer, 10 seats, $5 minimum), four blackjack tables (one dealer, five seats, $5 minimum) and one roulette table (one dealer, two wheels, eight seats).

The cards are real, the wheels are real, the dice are real (and rolled by guests). Live games, just not the way you’re used to playing.

For casinos, the benefits go beyond just cost savings. There’s also something called “game protection.” When chips and cash are used, cheating is more prevalent, along with employee theft and collusion. The folks at Vegas Advantage think the move to chipless games at Primm casinos may have to do with a recent theft we were the first to report, of course. A woman wiggled her way into an unstaffed casino cage and took $652,000 in cash and chips. Chipless tables take chips out of the equation.

Hearing Primm Valley Casino cage was robbed tonight, mid six figures. Biggest twist: Primm Valley Casino had mid six figures in its cage.

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) July 19, 2024

Hybrid games also give casinos more access to data, tracking play so they can make adjustments as needed. Enhancing revenue are other key elements of hybrid games, things like shuffle time and increased number of results.

For example, on the roulette table, because of the two roulette wheels, players can bet twice as often because the wheels are always churning out results. Of course, one can sit out any given spin or just bet on one wheel, but what fun is that?

A big benefit of hybrid games is casinos can hire dealers for personality rather than math skills. See also Circa’s dancing dealers. Just saying. Because games are mostly automated, dealers can focus on customer service.

Players have mixed reactions to hybrid games, despite the fact they’re often very much like the games they know and love.

Beyond the lower minimums, digital games almost completely remove the possibility of dealer error. (This can be a plus or a minus, of course, depending upon if the error is made in the player’s error.)

We appreciate hybrid games (and electronic games for that matter) and often recommend them to new players because it takes the pressure off, especially with the sometimes intimidating game of craps.

Electronic and hybrid games give newbies the chance to play at their own pace, without the stress of betting on every hand or spin or roll. Players can just watch and learn. They can dabble, and when they bet, there isn’t a lot of money on the line.

On The Strip, to get into a typical dice game, you’re in for $200 bucks before you know it.

The minimums at Silver Sevens are $5, but they could theoretically go even lower. (The risk of $1 minimums, of course, is they draw $1 players. Casinos consider this a reasonable trade-off for no players.)

That might be a good idea during this transition, because the dealers are getting brutalized financially. Silver Sevens is sort of a “break-in” house, so dealers were making a fraction of Strip dealers, even before the hybrid games, maybe $100 a shift. Now, even that has evaporated, we’re told. It’s better than having no table games, but still.

There are buttons to tip dealers on the terminals, but one, there aren’t a lot of players, and two, it’s different tipping with virtual money instead of chips. Oh, when we played a hybrid game at Wynn (the last place we ever expected to see a hybrid craps table), we couldn’t tip the dealer cash. We had to insert the tip into the machine and tip via the terminal.

Wynn has a this! pic.twitter.com/JLqAb5UUnd

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) October 10, 2024

Like we said, hybrid games are everywhere. Get used to them.

While we were at Silver Sevens, just hanging out in the table games area, we witnessed customers expressing their strong feelings about the switch to hybrid games to members of the staff.

One guest grumbled about the change to the blackjack games, then made his way to a fully electronic blackjack game. Gamblers aren’t always driven by logic, they’re often driven by mojo. Superstitions take time to overcome.

Silver Sevens has some awareness-raising to do. Maybe give us some chips to fiddle with? Or bikini dealers? Just brainstorming here!

We did a deep dive into Roll to Win Craps when it made its debut on The Strip in 2021. There have been refinements to this game from Aruze Gaming (now part of Interblock, makers of all the other hybrid games at Silver Sevens), mostly to prevent dice sliding, a method of cheating that caused some of the games to be removed from several Strip casinos.

The switch to hybrid games means all of Silver Sevens traditional games have been shut down and removed from the casino floor.

Except one.

A blackjack table with a $100,000 progressive is tucked into a corner. Why is this worth noting? Because according to gaming regulations, if a progressive can’t be transferred to another game, it has to be given away.

Once this table is removed from the floor, Silver Sevens has 30 days to give away the money. This could be very good news for players, and we’ll keep an eye on how this giveaway is done. We won’t tell you about it until after we win, because we don’t need additional competition, but you can bet the minute it’s over with, you’ll hear all about it!

As for the buzzed-about Silver Sevens rebrand to Continental, we’ve been told by front line staff it’s dead, but executives say it’s “a matter of timing.”

Also in limbo is the return of a popular restaurant brand, Pink Taco. We’re betting that plan isn’t happening.

At first we figured the stalled rebrand was financial, but if you go down the casino rabbit hole, you’ll find Affinity Gaming is part of Z Capital Group.

The official site for Z Capital says, “ZCG is a leading, privately held merchant bank comprised of private markets asset management, business consulting services and technology development and solutions.” Which translates as, “Z Capital could purchase New Zealand.”

The company owns a ton of restaurant brands, any number of which might fit into Silver Sevens’ big picture. We’re rooting for Italian, but ZCG and its Xperience Restaurant Group mainly do Mexican: Acapulco, Chevys Fresh Mex, El Torito, El Torito Grill, Las Brisas, Who Song & Larry’s, Sinigual, SOL Cocina, Solita, Rio Mambo, The RIM Scratch Craft Eats and Cal Mex Cantina.

No, really, they have a restaurant called The Rim. Please, please bring that brand to Las Vegas, Silver Sevens.

Food is a key challenge at Silver Sevens. The casino’s City Cafe is fairly well-regarded, but it closes early most nights (9:00 p.m., Sunday through Thursday). There was a taco truck parked in the casino’s port cochere the night we visited (following a Flo Rida appearance).

Anyway, there are lots of changes in the works at Silver Sevens, and the casino has a new General Manager, Jack Behrens.

Behrens was General Manager of Oyo for a year and previously held positions at Dreamscape (owners of Rio) and Paragon Gaming. He’s a financial guy, but has his finger on the pulse of casinos and gambling, as he is an avid poker player.

Silver Sevens faces some unique challenges, and by that we mean location.

The casino caters mainly to people who live in the neighborhood. Translation: Grinders. It’s a little like Ellis Island, but Silver Sevens is even farther from The Strip. The address is 4100 Paradise Rd., but it’s really on Flamingo.

We’ve always liked the place and tend to have good luck gambling there. On the night of our visit, we hit a royal flush for $1,077.

While not a taxable event, it was a handpay, anyway. It wasn’t a progressive, but the $77 is just tacked onto the jackpot as an on-brand perk for playing there (and making it a handpay offers attendants an additional chance for tips).

We’ll hit Silver Sevens more often if they fix the restaurant issue and keep cranking out those royals. Your results may vary.