Las Vegas' luxury casino brand Wynn Resorts is seeing a decrease in demand since COVID-19. In response, the company has decided to limit the business hours for its Encore casino. As a result, there will be some significant changes made to the poker operations.
Wynn Resorts owns a mega resort with two separate but attached neighboring casinos — Wynn and Encore. The Wynn side is the most popular and largest casino, and the former spot for the resorts firm's poker room. The Encore casino floor is a bit smaller and is where the poker room has been located since May 2016. But that's about the change temporarily.
Tourists and locals simply haven't been packing Encore since the casino reopened June 4. That's caused a bit of panic within the company previously owned by Steve Wynn, who was booted from his role as CEO a couple years ago due to sexual assault allegations involving casino employees.
The Las Vegas-based company is responding in a big way. Starting October 19, the Encore casino will only be open Thursday through Sunday, and will close at noon every Monday (reopening at 2 pm each Thursday). That includes every business on that side of the property (casino floor, poker room, hotel rooms, bars, and restaurants).
That's bad news for poker players who love the gorgeous Wynn poker room at Encore. But there is some good news for those who frequent the casino to play poker. Instead of only being open during Encore's business hours, the poker room will temporarily move to its old spot, near the parking garage on the Wynn side.
The length of time in which the poker room will remain in the Wynn casino is unknown. That will depend on when customer demand increases. Given the global health pandemic doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, you can expect the Wynn poker room to remain in its temporary spot for quite a while.
Las Vegas poker update
The Las Vegas poker scene has come a long way since the initial casino reopening weekend in early June. Only four of the 31 card rooms in town reopened during that weekend. But that number has since increased to 19, with Wynn's poker room being the last to reopen on September 30.
On the Strip, where Wynn is located, only a few of the poker rooms still remain closed (Excalibur, Luxor, Harrah's, and Mirage). Off the Strip, most of the busiest card rooms are back in action, including Golden Nugget, South Point, and Red Rock Resort.
So, if you're coming to town to play some cards, you won't have any problem finding a place to play, whether you prefer the smaller rooms (i.e. Flamingo, Bally's), or the major spots such as Aria, Bellagio, and of course, Wynn.
Featured image source: Flickr
