North Las Vegas locals casino Poker Palace will close its doors for good on October 1, marking a permanent end for the big white castle with a small poker room and its schedule of cheap daily tournaments.
The seven-table room will lose ten dealers, according to required notifications sent to state regulators. Owners plan on selling the property, which also offered bingo, blackjack, slots, and a restaurant.
Poker Palace was the last poker room in North Las Vegas, and management had expanded its daily poker tournament schedule to seven days a week prior to the WSOP. It has been open as a casino since 1974 after operating as a bar for the growing Nellis Air Force Base crowd.
Home game vibe
We visited the room in May and manager Timothy Shawi told us about the home game feel. "It's been like that since it opened. It's pretty much the same players over the last 30, 40, or 50 years. We have people who've played every Friday, like literally every Friday."
The room was known for its $20 daily tournament, which expanded from five days a week to seven in hopes of drawing a big crowd from the WSOP. It ran every night at 6:30pm and expanded to a $30 bounty on Sunday afternoons. New TVs, felts, and poker chips were also added before the summer series.
One regular on our visit, Joshua, also praised the home game vibe.
"The Saturday night tournament is where the action is at, man. Honestly, it's good action, you know, it's a fun game. It's more like your standard home game vibe but at a casino so that's really what makes this place interesting."
The casino will operate through the beginning of October, when an estimated 126 jobs will be lost at the property. It's the second casino to close in the area after Silver Nugget shut its doors in 2023.
