Most Las Vegas poker rooms have made a huge step towards returning to normal because they have plexiglass dividers that separate the players.
The trend begins when the Centers for Disease Control announced on Thursday that they believe vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or social distancing. The declaration opens the door to a complete return to normalcy and is a positive sign for the coming World Series of Poker this fall.
The Wynn poker room, which is located on the sister property of Encore, was reopened without Plexiglas partitions shortly after regulatory approval was obtained to run the entire casino at full capacity. It was the first poker room to get rid of its structures.
When the room reopened last year during the pandemic, the facility moved the poker room to a temporary location at the Wynn Casino.
Less than two weeks later, Bellagio's director of poker operations, Mike Williams, tweeted that his poker room would also remove the baffles. All open MGM The resorts have made the same move as Aria and MGM Grand has also ditched plexiglass.
We remove plexi @BellagioPoker! pic.twitter.com/egnNxENesH
- Mike Williams (@MikeWPokr) May 12, 2021
Caesars real estate quickly followed suit, and as all his Las Vegas poker games are, the rooms are now partition-free. Caesars Palace, Bally's, Planet Hollywood and Flamingo no longer use them.
The only large poker room on Las Vegas Boulevard that still uses them is Venetian. Golden Nugget, the most popular poker room in downtown Las Vegas, offers them as well, as does the off-strip poker room in Orléans.
Red Rock Casino, a popular destination in Las Vegas Locals beat them too. Masks are still required by customers of all Nevada casinos.
About a year ago, the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker room was one of the first to introduce separators. Last month his sister property in Hollywood just moved the biggest one World Poker Tour event in history still uses them.