Most Las Vegas poker rooms removing plexiglass dividers

The trend begins as the Center for Disease Control announced Thursday that in their opinion, vaccinated individuals no longer needed to wear a mask or social distance. The declaration cracks the door for a complete return to normal and is a positive sign for the upcoming World Series of Poker this fall.

The Wynn’s poker room, which is located in its sister property, Encore, reopened without plexiglass dividers shortly after it got the go-ahead from regulators to operate the entire casino at full capacity. It was the first poker room to get rid of the structures.

When the room initially reopened last year during the pandemic, the property moved the poker room to a temporary location in the Wynn casino.
Less than two weeks later, Bellagio’s Director of Poker Operations Mike Williams tweeted that his poker room would be removing the dividers as well. All of the open MGM Resorts properties have made the same move as Aria and MGM Grand have also ditched the plexiglass.

Caesars properties quickly followed suit as all of its Las Vegas poker rooms are now divider-free. Caesars Palace, Bally’s, Planet Hollywood and Flamingo no longer use them.

The only major poker room on Las Vegas Boulevard still implementing them is the Venetian. Downtown Las Vegas’ most popular poker room, the Golden Nugget also still has them up, as does the off-strip poker room at the Orleans.

Red Rock Casino, a popular destination for Las Vegas locals, has also taken them down. Masks are still required by patrons of all Nevada casinos.

About a year ago, the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker room was one of the first to implement the dividers. Last month, its sister property in Hollywood just ran the largest World Poker Tour event in history while continuing to use them.