Wynn won't offer poker when it reopens in Las Vegas and Boston

Wynn Resorts won’t offer poker when the company is allowed to reopen casinos in Las Vegas and Boston, and it also won’t be as easy to play craps, as part of the efforts to limit contact between patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the company’s Encore Boston Harbor resort, craps will be allowed only in the high-limit area, where crowds are typically smaller. 

“We don’t in any way want to do anything we can’t execute as safely as possible,” Brian Gullbrants, president of Encore Boston Harbor, said in an interview this week on the Bloomberg Baystate Business radio program. “This is an evolving situation.”

The decisions by Wynn highlight the changes gamblers can expect when they return to resorts that have been closed for two months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Poker rooms are typically crowded, and the game is one of the least profitable for casinos.

Casino operators also plan to open with every other slot machine closed and will impose limits on how many people can play at a table. In some cases, they’ll do temperature checks.

MGM Resorts International, the largest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip, released plans last week that showed sinks for hand-washing installed in the lobby of the Bellagio. The company is relying heavily on technology to make guests comfortable, such as online check-ins and mobile phones doubling as room keys at its hotels.

The changes will also present challenges for players, as competitors’ face will become harder to read in poker when it’s hidden behind a protective mask, for instance.

Virtually all of the nearly 1,000 casinos in the U.S. were closed as a result of the coronavirus, and 52 are open now, according to a running tally by the American Gaming Association (AGA). Most of those that have opened are in smaller markets or on tribal land. Casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi, two relatively large markets, are expected to open this week.

Jay Snowden, Chief Executive Officer of Penn National Gaming, said in an interview Thursday that he expects as many as five states to let their casinos reopen this month, with most of the others following in June, Bloomberg reports.

Penn’s 41 properties will open with half or less of their slot machines and tables available, Snowden said. Buffets will stay closed, and employees will wear masks, but he’s leaving it up to local authorities to decide if customers must as well. Snowden said he was heartened by images of a fairly busy start in some markets that have reopened, such as Deadwood, South Dakota, and he said that shows there is pent-up demand.