Encore Boston Craps

Massachusetts hasn’t given a definitive timeline for when it will reopen its three casinos, but when it does, options will be extremely limited for Bay State gamblers.

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Officials from Encore Boston Harbor have been saying they'd have 5,500 workers on staff when the $2.6 billion gambling resort opened in June. But headcount is far below that, and it's unclear. Massachusetts Gaming Commission 101 Federal St., 12th Floor Boston, MA 02110 TEL: 617.979.8400 FAX: 617.725.0258 www.massgaming.com. Aug 12, 2020 Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield, the two properties in the state with table games, have asked to restart roulette and craps games, which have not been allowed since casinos were authorized to reopen in early July after 4-months shutdown due to COVID-19.

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On Tuesday, regulators from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission finalized the minimum guidelines necessary for casinos and slot parlors to reopen after deciding that gamblers would not be allowed to carry drinks around the casino.

Last week, however, the majority of the standards were set. When casinos reopen, operators will not be allowed to spread craps, roulette, and poker games. According to CBS Boston, Blackjack tables will be capped at three players per table with plexiglass dividers used to separate players from one another and the dealer.

Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other (street craps, also known as shooting dice or rolling dice) or a bank (casino craps, also known as table craps). Nov 22, 2019 Las Vegas gaming and hospitality giant Wynn Resorts launched Encore Boston Harbor in June. The property is located in the City of Everett in the Greater Boston area. Since its opening, the property’s table games have outperformed its slot machines, which is not how things usually unfold at US casinos.

Plexiglass dividers have been implemented at several poker rooms in Florida and at the Bellagio’s recently reopened poker room in Las Vegas. Based on the abundance of caution exercised by Massachusetts regulators, it’s likely that MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor will be forced into using these partitions in their poker rooms as well.

Poker, craps, and roulette will be permitted once regulators feel the environment is safe enough for it and relax the guidelines a bit. Those games will likely have restrictions on how many players can sit at a table.

Slot machines will be cleaned at least once every four hours and will be spaced out throughout the casino. Gamblers will be required to wear masks or face coverings while on the gambling floor.

Massachusetts is home to three commercial casinos and numerous racinos, that only allow slot machines. It is still a relatively young gambling market as Encore Boston Harbor, the state’s most profitable casino only opened in 2019. MGM Springfield, the only other casino with a poker room in Massachusetts, opened two years earlier.

The Bay State is following similar measures taken by Michigan, which houses three commercial casinos in Detroit. Gaming regulators in Michigan announced earlier this month that poker will be banned until further notice at those properties, which will operate at 15 percent of its total capacity.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer still has yet to announce a timeline for the reopening of Detroit’s casinos. Massachusetts, on the other hand, could open as early as June 29, but Gov. Charlie Baker hasn’t released any plans yet.

Need that revenue to flow again

Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield have asked the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for the go-ahead to open up their craps and roulette tables. The Commission will consider the request, scheduled to have a virtual meeting to discuss the matter at 10:00am Thursday.

“We appreciate the Gaming Commission’s consideration of our request as we progress through a phased reopening with the health and safety of our employees and guests at the forefront of any decisions,” said MGM Springfield.

According to MassLive.com, the two casinos specifically asked about craps and roulette, but not poker. The Commission, will, however, also discuss poker during Thursday’s meeting.

The state has one other casino, Plainridge Park, but it is a slots-only facility.

Massachusetts casinos slow to ramp up

After shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March along with the rest of the casinos in the United States, Massachusetts casinos were among the last to reopen. MGM Springfield reopened July 10; the other two welcomed back customers a few days prior.

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Casinos were required to implement a slew of health and safety protocols, including social distancing. The reason craps and roulette tables have been blocked off is because those are larger tables that support more players. Those games draw crowds. They are also games in which players and casino staff are frequently leaning over and reaching across the table. Even with everyone wearing masks, craps and roulette simply don’t lend themselves to social distancing.

MGM Springfield said that it will have plexiglass barriers installed at the craps and roulette tables to enforce social distancing and protect those at the games, just as they do with their other table games.

Poker is a similar situation. Short-handed games could possibly work, but full poker tables are arguably the riskiest gaming tables in the casino. Players are in close quarters, touching chips and cards, and poker is also a game where people tend to play for several hours at a time. All that time sitting in a room near lots of other poker players is something the novel coronavirus would very much approve of.

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If I had to guess, I think the Gaming Commission will approve the request to open up craps and roulette tables, provided measures are in place to keep everyone safe. Massachusetts’s COVID-19 have been looking pretty solid lately, with daily new cases above 500 just a handful of times in the past two months.

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Poker will stay closed. Plus, poker is not a particularly profitable gaming segment for casinos, so I would be surprised if MGM and Encore pushed for it at all. Additionally, with the casinos only allowing about one-third of its normal customer capacity inside at any given time, it may be hard for them to get enough traffic to even make reopening their poker rooms worth it.