She added that Encore offered to pay for new hires’ dealer school in June of last year, but “because of this labor crunch, reopening poker right now would necessitate the closure of other table games,” she said.“From a creative standpoint, the team’s always up for a challenge, and this was able to really challenge us,” said Encore president Brian Gullbrants as he toured the resort Thursday afternoon.Įncore is hoping for business to be as brisk as possible within the confines of its reduced capacity. We simply cannot find enough dealers, cashiers or food servers,” Krum said. She added that Encore, like many other industries across the state, is suffering from an employment shortage. Krum, the sole representative from casinos on the issue Thursday, said what was once the poker area has been repurposed during COVID-19 for “some of our highest-performing slot machines,” adding that they are “physically large machines that take up quite a bit of space.” She said the popularity of that room since poker was removed has grown “exponentially.”

Currently, about half of New England states’ casinos have open poker tables. The two casinos have previously stated they would revisit the poker issue by the end of 2021. The mandate was lifted in late May, but poker has still not returned to Massachusetts casinos. At the time, both Encore and MGM Springfield said those limitations would not have made poker profitable enough to bring back. The commission had originally mandated that only four players be allowed per poker table in response to COVID-19.

Many of those complaints were requests to bring poker back to casinos, according to Bruce Band, the deputy director of the commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau. “We’re constantly readjusting offerings based on guest demand.”Īlthough the commission normally receives only about five complaints a month, the group has as of late received about 50 per month. We have said, ‘just not at this time,’” said Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Encore Boston Jacqui Krum.

“To be clear, we did not say ‘never’ to poker. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission grilled a senior Encore Casino staffer Thursday over its continued delay to bring back poker as the commission has seen a rise in complaints over its disappearance.

Boston encore casino reopening