Poker Rooms at Bellagio, Caesars Palace Reopen Thursday

Posted on: June 17, 2020, 09:37h. 

Last updated on: June 18, 2020, 10:03h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More
Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

The poker room at the Bellagio, as well as the one at Caesars Palace, are scheduled to resume operations at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 18, following months of shuttering because of the coronavirus pandemic.

bellagio poker room to reopen
The poker room at the Bellagio has been empty for months. It is to reopen Thursday morning. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Mike Williams, the Bellagio’s director of poker operations, announced the reopening in a tweet on Wednesday. He said “6 handed live action play” will take place on 23 tables in the venue. The poker room also will be open “24-7!,” he added.

The Bellagio, an MGM Resorts property, is the Las Vegas Strip’s second poker room to reopen. The Venetian resumed operations on June 5, the day after many Las Vegas casinos reopened.

The Excalibur reopens July 11. MGM’s Luxor and The Shoppes at Mandalay Bay Place will reopen on June 25. Aria Resort & Casino, Mandalay Bay, and Four Seasons Las Vegas are to reopen on July 1.

The Golden Nugget, The Orleans, and the South Point also reopened in time for the first weekend of gaming operations in Las Vegas. Elsewhere, Los Angeles’ Commerce Casino is to reopen Friday morning. In March, six California card rooms, including the Commerce Hotel & Casino, shut their doors temporarily.

Face Masks MIA

Since reopening, multiple complaints were made that guests at the Las Vegas poker rooms, and those on gaming floors, often failed to wear recommended facial masks. Fewer than half of the players at tables typically bothered to wear the masks, based on local news reports.

Under initial guidelines from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, casinos had to make masks available to guests who ask for them. Late Wednesday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board announced that Nevada casinos must have players and spectators at most table and card games wear protective face coverings, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Also, some Nevada poker rooms now can have five players at a table instead of the initial requirement of four. Before the pandemic, nine or 10 poker players were found at each table.

Energy Witnessed as MGM Reopens Venues

“It was exciting and emotional to see the energy in Las Vegas last week as we welcomed back our employees and reopened our doors to guests for the first time in months,” Bill Hornbuckle, MGM Resorts’ acting CEO and President said in a statement after the June 4 reopening of the MGM properties. “We are eager to get more of our employees back to work,”

MGM Resorts has implemented a “Seven-Point Safety Plan,” which includes varied protocols and procedures, to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.