Since March 16th, the Palm Beach Kennel Club Poker Room has been shut down. The coronavirus pandemic has led to poker rooms and casino closing across the United States. However, as states are reopening, game rooms are getting back to work. For the West Palm Beach venue, the poker room is set to be back in action starting today. Procedures will be in place to ensure player and employee protection.
Details of the Reopening
The poker room will start offering cash games at 9am. The remainder of the facility will open back up beginning at 11:30am. The property will only operate at 50% capacity. Signing a wavier is required of guests when entering the facility as well as a temperature check.
For the poker room, certain procedures will be in place to ensure player and employee protections. Less people will be at the poker table. The management team will determine what number of players is appropriate. Players will be seated once the arrived and not wait in the waiting room as usual. Games will begin once the designated amount of players are seated at the table.
Players will not be allowed to transfer tables. Players will be required to pay for buy-ins at the cashier cage. Dealers will be assigned to only one table. Usually, dealers will move from table to table to switch up gameplay. This will not be the case for quite some time as the coronavirus is an issue.
Chips will be isolated and only used at one table. When chips are removed from the table, they will not be recirculated. The goal is to sanitize the chips before they are used again.
The poker room will use paper cards and they will be discarded at certain points during the game. Drinks will be served with a cup holder for the table top. The holder will be sanitized before being given to a new customer. Hand sanitizer will be used instead of a dealer button. When a player has the sanitizer, they are encouraged to use it.
Will Players Come?
Now that the poker room is opening up, will players be willing to visit? This is one of a select few gaming facilities in the US that is going to offer poker. Many operators feel the game is to big of a risk due to players being in close contact. If players feel the same, will the poker room even see anyone coming to the tables?
We will have to wait and see what happens over the weekend as the facility gets back into the swing of things. When the announcement was made that the facility was reopening, players did speak up and state on social media they are exited. But will it be enough to keep the tables busy?
Health experts will also be watching gaming venues to see if cases of the coronavirus increase or if the sanitization efforts are enough to help players avoid catching the virus.
