Word on Encore poker as of now is they will not reopen this calendar year under any circumstances. But are highly likely to reopen in 2022.

The understanding is because all employees were furloughed at the beginning of Covid, by MA law they must rehire those staff (or offer them?) at their former pay if their job returns before a period of time has elapsed - that period of time runs out around the end of this calendar year. Therefore, in 2022 they'd be able to hire new staff at lower salaries to cut cost. My citation of the law may be a bit off here on the specifics but this is the general framework as it was told to me. It's 100% cost-cutting and letting that period of time lapse. They're not sitting around twiddling their thumbs to see if anyone still plays poker in New England.

Also look for a downsized room for sure.

But everyone can stop angry tweeting them, it won't make a difference.

Why is it suddenly going to be cheaper to hire poker room staff in 2022 than it was in 2019?

That's what I was thinking. The poker room wasn't open that long. It's not like they had a lot of veterans who rec'd raises.

No idea. Only communicating what was told to me from someone who formerly worked there. Supposedly they spent a lot on staff when they opened originally.

They did poach quite a few management level staff from high-end Vegas rooms at the time. Floors from Bellagio and Aria moved out there in addition to dealers.

That makes perfect sense. Thank you.

That makes no sense. They weren't a union shop so it's not like they have a bunch of dealers at the top end of a pay scale to replace. Labor is tight and whenever/if they open, dealers will be paid more than they were in February of 2020.
The only logical explanation is resources. They have determined that it is better to focus their limited labor pool on more profitable portions of the business.

They brought in a lot of people from outside. A masseuse on the poker room floor told me Encore brought her in from LV to work and supervise.

What was said to me is that it's not relevant to unions, but a MA labor law.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying they didn't have senior union dealers that were at the high end of the wage scale that can be replaced by lower paid new dealers. The dealers they hire next year will get paid no less than any dealers hired today.

All i know is I'm tired of their excuses and ineptitude. Is it possible we'd have been better off with Caesars??

I think what he could be saying is if they bring the job title back, they have to offer everyone they laid off their job back within a certain time period. Say they laid off 200 dealers but only want to bring back 100, instead of having to offer 200 dealers their job back they wait a year and start fresh with the half they choose. That would go for dealers, floors, managers etc.

Yes.

For sure. Caesars has their own issues but the corporation has more of a commitment to poker, favors online poker, and it would have resulted in a WSOPC and other tourney series in the Boston area. It would have been light years better for poker players.

...as Caesars closes down the Planet Hollywood room.

Not to mention all of their other Vegas rooms are among the worst in town.

We'd be better off if this room were run by MGM.

MGM Springfield had already made the announcement over a month ago that they wouldn't evaluate the return of poker until the end of the year, so this is sounding like the standard industry play here. Probably wouldn't make a difference which corp was running this casino, as far as timeline for the return of poker. Although... Encore BH will swap out its president again on August 1st, so who knows? (I wouldn't bet on it though.)

I worked at Bellagio and knew most Aria staff right before Encore opened up shop. Not one single person I heard leaving Aria or Bellagio to go to Boston. Only knew a couple people from Wynn Poker room that transferred over to Boston.

I saw former floors from both at EBH with my own eyes. Maybe they moved somewhere else in between? Not sure either way, but I knew the folks when I saw them.

visited Encore Boston this morning, went to red card desk, asked about old poker comp points. they said that they were converting them into regular casino comp points at the rate of 1 for 1. the conversion would take 24 hrs.

Yikes - I was there a month ago for the same thing and it took 15 minutes

Just left there, figured I'd do the same, and I got "something should be there by Monday" as an answer.

Also, speaking to a host while I was waiting....He said they're putting poker tables in the sports book that's going into the old buffet, but only a dozen or so, as poker isn't really a money maker, and that he'll know more in August.

Considering sports betting got shot down last year, not holding my breath that the area is going to open up anytime soon. And if Turning Stone and NH are any indication, you don't need that much space for a Draft Kings' room.

Smart I guess because they'll have 100+ poker wait lists with everyone out in the pits. Text alerts would be a good idea when you're next up to allow confidence in going all the way to the pits..

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/07/...no-live-poker/

If it's so unprofitable, why doesn't every casino just band together to get rid of poker?

The garage and the parking lots across the street are over flowing on the weekends. They don’t want poker players making the parking situation even worse. Poker won’t be back until they figure that out.