Harrah's reopening poker tables after Christmas

David Danzis

ATLANTIC CITY — Poker players will be able to put down a live bet before ringing in the new year at more than one casino.

Harrah's Resort Atlantic City will reopen its -branded room on Dec. 26, according to a Caesars Entertainment Inc. spokesperson. Harrah's is just the second Atlantic City casino to bring back live poker following the industrywide shutdown earlier this year.

"Harrah’s Resort is thrilled to re-open our World Series of Poker room just in time for the new year, which will serve as the destination for poker in Atlantic City at our Caesars Entertainment resorts," said Ron Baumann, senior vice president and general manager of Harrah's and Caesars Atlantic City. "We’ve spent the last several months ensuring we had enhanced health and safety measures in place, so both our players and team members can feel confident when they play at Harrah’s, while allowing us to take an important step forward in responsibly returning more of our table games product to the market."

The poker room at Harrah's will open daily at noon and close at 4 a.m.

Seating will be limited to eight per table to encourage social distancing and polycarbonate dividers will separate players.

Masks must be worn by anyone inside an Atlantic City casino.

Borgata Casino & Spa, which has Atlantic City's largest poker room, resumed live play Oct. 21.

There are five poker rooms in Atlantic City casinos, at Bally’s Atlantic City, , Golden Nugget Atlantic City, Harrah’s and Tropicana Atlantic City. had poker tables but removed them to make space for a new high-limit slot area.

A spokesperson for Caesars Entertainment said the company has no plans to reopen the poker room at Tropicana at this time.

In 2019, Atlantic City casinos with poker rooms reported slightly more than $27.2 million in revenue. The prior year, revenue generated from poker rooms was nearly $28.5 million.