I heard through a Facebook group for poker dealers I am in that Pala Casino outside of San Diego won't be reopening their poker room.

I wonder how many casinos will use this as the impetus to just not reopen underperforming poker rooms?

I don't think you'll have to wonder for long .. but give 'us' the definition of 'under-performing' first!

Poker rooms are labor, slots aren't. If a casino has to spread out the easiest form of income it has in order to get the ball rolling again, then that very well could mean the poker rooms get 'furloughed' for 6 months after the casinos first open to see how things go.

The rooms need a plan for cleanliness ... but more importantly they need Players. And even if a Player wants to come back they might get pressure from home or just feel uneasy about 'being first', which will slow the initial flow of action.

If the casinos can 'successfully' reopen the slot and maybe some table games, then I can see some of them diving back into a 'marginally' profitable use of floor space. GL

It's not just the financial aspect though.

It's easy to tell people they have to have two empty slot machines on either side of them. It's not as easy to spread poker and maintain six feet of distance. Even six-max that's a stretch.

But rooms staying closed longer while they try and open places while maintaining social distancing is different than shuttering the room entirely, which is what Pala is doing.

Logistically, I am not sure where I would start with procedures to operate a room right now. Could it be figured out? for sure. Sadly the resources, focus, energy for all that is going to be spent on Slots and then table games.

The logistics for table games is non-trivial as well, but the economic motivation is there for casino execs. To me , the plexiglass stuff that is being installed is just weird in table game enviornment, seems fine for slots. You'd have to want to play 3 card Poker pretty badly to sit in that set-up with mask /glove wearing dealer. (s). The social / fun aspect of a table game is sucked out. Table games are by definition social. More Introvert folks tend to play slots.

Gonna be hard to forecast what will happen on casino floors over the next 12 months, but pretty safe is to speculate " the times, they are a changing".

Feel bad for impact on people, especially in places like Vegas where local economy is totally dependent on Casinos and little other opportunities will develop until Casinos get back to something close to normal.

I don't know if figuring out logistics is a big issue. There are a lot of bored poker room managers coming up with plans right now. Getting upper management to agree on plans and to install any necessary equipment would be the only issue. Once the first few rooms open the measures they take will become clear and a base standard will emerge.

The issue I see is gaming or state regulators setting maximum numbers per table or minimum distance between players. I don't see how we can do 6 feet.

Bumping this thread to ask how all fellow poker dealers are hanging in there, I feel like our jobs are one of the worst hit by this pandemic. Obviously at the start casinos were considered a mass gathering and couldn't open, but they were obviously going to push hard to get slots open asap, but poker has been put on the backburner in a lot of cases, if not shutting their rooms down altogether.

I've been furloughed since March, in June there was talks of reopening 4-handed with plexiglass dividers in place but something fell through with the tribe not being happy with the plexiglass, and issues with surveillance and lighting...who knows. Now it's September and still nothing. It's super annoying when there's a casino 30 miles away that has been running ~60% of it's tables 7-handed with plexiglass since June. Granted they are one of the best rooms in the country and we are new, but it's still annoying not being able to work nonetheless. I'm still grateful that they are covering my health insurance for now, that's a lot more than I can say about a lot of people I know, many of whom have been laid off altogether. Hopeful that we can reopen soon.

I have a pretty bleak outlook on the future of live poker after this, wondering how you all feel about it. Like how long will it take for things to get back to normal, if ever. People will have much less disposable income and rooms that closed aren't going to be chomping at the bit to reopen. I have no college degree and dealing is all I've done since I turned 21, considering jumping into some coding bootcamp and switching gears altogether. Luckily I have a decent savings nest to last me awhile. Good luck everyone.

The rooms that are open are booming so I think live poker will be ok.

I am back to work but working a lot harder than before with all the cleaning and stuff. It’s just more stressful even if you’re not particularly worried about getting sick.

Nonetheless most people I know in the industry that I do not work with currently are out of work. Some have moved to work in rooms that are open. Some have gotten out. Even though work is hard right now I feel lucky to have a job.

Hang tough poker employees.


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Not knowing is the worst part. When this all started it seemed like it would be a couple of months and we were not supposed to leave our houses during that time anyway so no big deal. Then it kept being pushed back, but never by more than a week or month. Pretty much any job change I make at this point would involve selling my house and moving somewhere else to make less money. I don't want to do that and have my job come back a week later.

I'm not back to work yet and have been told it will almost definitely happen at some point between one week and one year from now. But maybe tomorrow. Or never.

Anyone here deal in Ohio and hear anything ?

My room reopened in June but I've been wearing a jacket to work and don't have much seniority so they only brought me back to work a few weeks ago.

If you're in a position where you can get by without a paycheck, count your blessings. It's a whole new kind of frustrating to work in this environment.

I was one of the newest dealers at my room when we closed mid-March. Every dealer newer than me also floored or was a brush, and was brought back earlier. I was brought back at the start of August when we returned to our pre-COVID operating hours. The action here is even better than before we closed IMO. I'm alright with wearing a mask, but we've also been required to wear safety glasses or face shields for over 2 weeks now. The fogging up/moisture accumulation on the glasses is an absolute PITA, but I'm still happy & appreciative to be back working.

Most of the Dealers at my home casino have left 'the company', some did take Pit work and others wanted to go to the Sports Book but that's tied up in legal for some reason. Between unemployment and unpaid leaves of absence they just didn't want to go back at lower wages .. not sure what they're all doing. PLO Home games are running 7 days a week but I've heard very little about the 1/2 Reg scene. Unfortunately reopening poker would probably be quite a task unless those Dealers would be welcomed back without 'hard feelings'. GL

Ours killed poker for a few years until they did renos that left them with a big empty space. They're not opening any table games at the moment but I think they'll bring back poker when they can

The fogging means your mask is not working correctly. Think of surgeons who wear masks, if they fogged up that wouldn't be great. Tape down your nose.

A co-worker of mine took to dealing a local "home" game for extra cash (we are both lucky that our employer is an online casino and we have been able to work from home during this time but we both have lost PT income).

Unfortunately my co-worker was just diagnosed as positive for COVID-19.I don't know a ton about his life outside of work but I cannot imagine that the game he dealt was not where he got it or he could have got it and took it to the game.

Consider this a cautionary tale - it sucks that our rooms are closed down, but there's a reason they are and my co-worker is proof that. If you are dealing or playing in "home" games, you are at risk. You can choose what's best for you but if you do not consider this risk as part of the equation, you're fooling yourself.

I am hopeful my co-worker recovers and doesn't infect his wife or two children. And hopeful nobody in this group gets it either.

I hope your coworker comes out okay and doesn't infect anyone, too. I completely understand why they would choose to do it, though. You make WAY more money and in cash, and if you can't do it legally you still have bills to pay.

They're risking their license and possible criminal charges, as well as fines/jail time. If you don't get caught it is Nice.

I mean if casinos are open with mandatory masks, why whoever is hosting the game makes everyone aware that you NEED to wear a mask at all times?

Covid is some serious ****, as I just lost my grandma to complications of covid (long term).

This is what’s gonna start showing up more often now, what it causes to the body months after being positive for Covid.

Even if they require masks, they aren't likely to have good ventilation and people are going to take the masks off to eat and drink. Proper ventilation and plexiglass shields plus masks are the only ways to keep it safe IMHO.

There was no eating allowed at our house, you took a dinner button. But people did drink. Ventilation, masks, plexiglass, and increased disinfection (and social distancing), limited amount of patrons and limiting the number of players per table are steps that might help.

Home game scene in our area has basically shut down for a couple weeks due to a host, Dealer and a couple Players testing positive. All seemed level headed, until ..

1) Didn't stop one of the more desperate hosts from 'trying' to get a game going on various days 'to fill in the gap' ..

2) Didn't stop at least one of the positives from showing up at the local casino for a drawing .. and playing some table games! GL

My casino has not reopened poker and we have no ETA.

About 40% of Poker Dealers have gone to other jobs, 30% were "temporarily" transferred to Table Games, and the rest are on doors/temperature check or cleaning EG machines.

Our only local competition has reopened and is killing it. Most of the dealers who left went there because they were understaffed for the business we are giving to them.

Covid itself has greatly affected my family and friends, so I am not mad about the decision, but it still sucks and the lack of communication on future plans is frustrating.

I'm dealing in Table Games and considering how long I can do it before I look elsewhere.

We've been told if we switch to other departments we'll lose our seniority in poker. So it's a risk when officially there are still plans to open poker as soon as regulations allow. There's not a lot of jobs around here that pay more than unemployment does.

Poker will 100% not open up anytime soon. I'd be surprised if they opened table games in the next year

Table games is like opened in most of the country, no?

No? As far as I know.