I don’t think Jack wants poker back. I’ll never step foot on that dump until they sell it to a real company that cares about the customers.

Poker needs to come back period.

The dealers for the most part are great.

Who else can we email to bring this back?

Anyone wanna email governor Dewine’s office?

They have no motivation right now. We need to seriously all fight to bring this back. Take a look around casinos .. no reason poker should not be back

I hope it gets sold. I think a new company would do a lot of good. First of all, the inside of the place is depressing. It reminds me of the dated and old looking places in Vegas. Livelier colors, improve the atmosphere. Get some entertainment in there. Shows. Concerts. Comedians. Reinstate customers who were banned for no reason. That would improve business. Gilbert is not a casino guy. I also think lack of competition hurts. Let MGM have table games. If people have a choice where to shoot craps or play blackjack, they will go to the place with better hookers and better customer service/rewards programs.

Northfield Park and Thistledown have very little chance of getting table games. Would require a change to the state constitution. The state would have to vote on it.

Gilbert should sell. Plain and simple. The atmosphere of the place was far better when it was horseshoe.

Gilbert was majority owner then also.

This was the same for Cincinnati, but I believe Caesars was actually running everything. When the got out and Rock Gaming or whatever took completely over the place went downhill in Cincinnati, would assume similar things happened in Cleveland. Cincinnati is now Hard Rock, but I have only been once since March due to COVID and no poker, so not sure how it is now.

Cincy seems to be doing pretty good...minus poker though. Partitions on all games. Was there a week ago.

Which is why I don't understand there being no poker. They even have a poker table set up with the partitions, but to the best of what I can gather based on some correspondence with some people that should be in the know they really have no guidance as to why poker can't be played or what needs to be done.

All I hear is it is the decision of regulators and the health department, but I can't get anyone to give me a good contact to reach out to someone at any of those departments. If they were to close down all table games or casinos for safety, then I get it, but to allow certain games where patrons pass chips, cards, dice, etc... back and forth, but not allow others seems illogical.

That’s the issue! They blame the “regulators” and the health department lol... I can’t see how a health department would okay any casino activity period lol!

Reach out to the state health department see if they have any decision at all involving this then if they say no forward that to the casino/gaming commission and get the bottom of this

Make sense??

Was told by multiple people who work there, dealers and supervisors, that the health department and gaming commission approved the plexiglass. The governor is the one holding it back.

That’s for the heads up on that. Anytime frame for that to be fixed or what their deal is?

Does anyone have some solid predictions when poker will be back?

I have contacted both the health department and the governors office through their website contact us portals. I will see if I get a response.

Thanks! Interested to see what happens. I know I tried to call a month ago or so and the governors office had no clue

I know there have been many questions about the poker room in cleveland, is it closed for good? are they moving it to another location? I personally have been to the casino several times and while it is weird at first you get used to the mask thing quickly. Now for the poker room, yes there are blackjack tables up there now but personally i think those are temporary, there are curtains blocking sections of the poker room and the poker tables are still there, they just pushed them close together. Maybe the casino knew it would be quite a while before they could open poker so they decided to use the room temporarily for blackjack. My opinion is and it is just an opinion but once poker is approved i bet they get rid of the black jack tables and move the poker tables back to where they were. So hopefully it will be a quick transition once they approve poker, but given the state of the world at the moment i do not think poker is much of a priority for the powers that be.

Any update?

Anyone hear anymore news

I have not received any replies from going through the contact portals on the websites.

I did reach out on twitter and Hard Rock in Cincinnati replied saying that it was out of their hands and they don't know what needs to be done. I did also run into a few poker dealers over the weekend and one of them was saying that he had heard it was an occupancy issue. They are only allowed so many people in the building at this time and they don't want people huddled in the poker room using up that number for a low revenue generator and then have to turn back gamblers that are going to be degenning in the pits or at the slots.

This makes sense, but I do have pause totally believing it as the way he was describing it it sounded like a casino based decision, but the closing of poker rooms has been a government mandate. Unless of course it is a government mandate based on the same principle as they would want more people gambling so that the casino would make more money and thus generate more taxes.

Any updates anyone?

The governments office has not been transparent at all. We need an update. Anyone talk to any dealers? It’s so sad what they have to go through. I know a ton want to work.

They clearly don’t want to have poker. I know it’s a state thing but jack cleveland has been looking for excuses to downsize or shut down poker for a while. As2s..... says it brings in 10mm in revenues with lower overhead than other casinos which may be true but it’s more of opportunity cost Id think. There has to be a reason they want A smaller poker Footprint. And now with no management, who would they rely on to run it?

What are the dealers doing? I’m sure collecting unemployment and the extended benefits. There are a lot that are going through training to become games dealers downstairs. Staff is doing really well post covid.

There is enough poker to go around for anyone who wants to play. You can find games. But I do miss the Nautica days of poker.

Do you know of any "organized" games in the Cleveland area or just home games you're referring to? Feel free to DM if you don't want it on here.

It just seems like a lot of speculation right now. Who really knows. What about management? I feel like it would be such a waste of space upstairs if they kept
The same layout and didn’t put poker back upstairs.

I just wish they would be more transparent. As we all know poker brings people to the casino to do other stuff.

If anything it’s hopeful that more and more casinos are reopening poker around the country every week and some places have been doing it for MONTHS.

I think the casino wants it. If u read the state of Ohio website it’s literally a mandate that poker can’t reopen. Once it gets approved from that end I believe cleveland would
Be thrilled to have it back. The only thing is that who knows how long that’ll take... again other states and districts are reopening poker even faster so maybe that’ll put some pressure on Ohio to give it the nod. So sad for the dealers.

Just a heads up guys looks like around thanksgiving time Pennsylvania will have poker back.
Hopefully this is a good sign for Ohio (it should be)