Encore Spokesman Eric Kraus said that 70 Poker dealers at Encore have participated in a new program offered by the company to train for other permitted games, those mostly being Blackjack. “Because we shut down the Poker Room and furloughed several of those Poker Room employees, we have started training those Poker dealers and others with.

SPRINGFIELD — No craps. No roulette. No poker.

1. Poker Rooms; Encore Boston Harbor; Encore Boston Harbor. Facebook; Twitter; 5 4 3 2 1. I think the Encore poker room will be open.
2. No poker, no roulette: Massachusetts Gaming Commission sets reopening rules for reopening for MGM Springfield, Encore Boston Harbor, Plainridge Park By Jim Kinney, masslive.com 6/17/2020.

But there will be nearly six-foot-tall plexiglass dividers at blackjack tables separating dealers from players — and players from each other — under new rules meant to keep casino patrons from gambling with their health along with their money.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Wednesday adopted the set of reopening guidelines for the state’s casinos, which have been shuttered since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

No reopening date has been set, and casino operators say they will need 10 to 14 days notice in order to ramp back up. Encore Boston Harbor has discussed a tentative reopening date of Monday, June 29 as a tentative opening date.

But the formal reopening date depends on Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan, and is expected to occur at Phase 3. The state is in what officials have called the first part of Phase 2.

The guidelines call on casinos to disable some slot machines and remove chairs in order to keep gamblers separated — four feet apart if there’s plexiglass between them, or six feet apart if not. The table games that are allowed will be restricted to three players at a time.

But restrictions that cut the number of people allowed on the gaming floor make it hard to make enough money even operate a casino, said Seth Stratton, MGM Springfield’s vice president and general counsel.

“I think our team has to look and see if there is an economically feasible way to reopen,” he said. The three casinos have been closed since March 15 with most employees furloughed.

The commission decided to revisit the question of total occupancy later.

New rules approved Wednesday would also require guests to wear masks over their noses and mouths, taking them off only if they are outdoors, if they are seated or if they are drinking. The commission will requires the casinos to provide masks for patrons who show up without them.

The new guidelines require casinos to limit food service and consumption to designated areas, which they’ll have to operate according to the state’s guidelines for restaurants.

Casino bars will remain closed under the governor’s guidelines and until further commission guidance. Last week, Baker moved bars to the fourth phase of reopening.

The commission started the conversation saying that the restrictions are tightest in the country and could limit occupancy to as little as a quarter of each casino’s regular capacity.

For MGM Springfield, that would take the total occupancy from 7,400 to as low as 1,870. It would drop Encore from 16,000 to 4,000, and Plainridge from 5,000 to 1,400.

Stratton said MGM’s experts have not recommended plexiglass dividers for the slot machine area and the company has not installed them in other locations, opting instead to turn off every other machine. But, he said MGM will evaluate the situation.

The Commission said plexiglass barriers will allow the casinos to operate more slot machines and have a higher occupancy.

Casinos are also told to at least consider performing non-touch temperature checks and prohibiting entry to any guest registering 100.4 or above on two consecutive tests.

Other requirements include:

Provide hand sanitizer at points of entry, along with signage and casino staff to encourage guests to use it before entering.

Develop protocols for chip sanitization so that all chips coming from the cage have been sanitized.

Change out decks of playing cards more often to avoid cross contamination.

Sanitize touch screens, counters, slot machines and gaming machines.

At the cage, provide guests with the option to receive cash in enclosed envelopes.

Limit beverage service to the gaming floor, and to patrons who are actively gambling. Patrons will not be allowed to walk around with a drink or take it from slot machine to slot machine or table to table.

In neighboring Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe reopened Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun at the beginning of this month. Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode island is open by invitation only. Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady, New York, is still closed.

On Wednesday, Mohegan Sun announced that it is reopening its dining and shopping outlets, and expanding hours and services.

In New Jersey, Atlantic City Casinos are still closed, but Gov. Phil Murphy has hinted they may reopen on or about July 4.

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©2020 MassLive.com, Springfield, Mass.

Visit MassLive.com, Springfield, Mass. at www.masslive.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Encore Boston Poker Room Pictures 2017

With Poker games seemingly in no position to return to Massachusetts casinos any time soon, many former Poker dealers at Encore Boston Harbor have begun to train for other permitted games like Blackjack.

Encore Spokesman Eric Kraus said that 70 Poker dealers at Encore have participated in a new program offered by the company to train for other permitted games, those mostly being Blackjack.

“Because we shut down the Poker Room and furloughed several of those Poker Room employees, we have started training those Poker dealers and others with game experience in dealing. We are offering them to train on Blackjack dealing mostly. We don’t like furloughing employees. They are family members. So, we tell them about all open positions and see if anyone furloughed is a good fit for those positions. If they’re furloughed and would be a good fit, we can bring them back to open positions. We invest a lot in our employees, whether finding them, training them and keeping them. We don’t want them to leave during a furlough.”

He said there are approximately 70 dealers of Poker that are or have re-trained for Blackjack, one of the only table games now allowed in the state.

Encore Boston Poker Room Pictures Images

At the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) meeting last Thursday, the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) gave one of its first updates on the possibility of returning Poker, and the long and short of that is Poker is currently not possible.

The IEB explained that Poker requires many people at the table to be worthwhile and profitable for the casino, and at the moment the best that can be done is four players at a time.

“In order to make Poker a safe game, we could put only about four people at a table,” said one of the members. “In discussions with operators, this would mean Poker would not be profitable. At this point, we wouldn’t recommend Poker until we can get more players at the table and do that safely.”

The IEB indicated some other states with gaming are returning Poker and allowing many people at a table. With COVID-19 restrictions as they are, it isn’t a course the MGC is willing to forge.

“That’s not what I would consider a safe situation for employees or players,” he said. “Poker at its heart is a marginally profitable game for casinos. We would at best get four players at a table and that’s a very, very low profit, it at all a profit, for casinos.”

Encore Boston Poker

At Encore, the Poker Room and Poker areas have largely been repurposed to accommodate more Blackjack tables at greater distances.