Caesars Palace Las Vegas is set to bring back its poker room after closing the previous venue in June. The new location is expected to open in the coming weeks, with Caesars Entertainment Las Vegas regional President Sean McBurney stating that it will be ready before the World Series of Poker starts in late spring.
The original poker room, which was near the sportsbook, closed to make space for a high-limit slot area. While some poker players feared it might never return, recent reports indicate that a new space is being prepared. According to local blog Vegas Advantage, an unnamed source claimed the new poker room could open on May 16 with eight tables.
Concerns about the poker room’s future were understandable. Since 2020, several casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, including Flamingo, Planet Hollywood, Excalibur, Harrah’s, and Mirage, permanently shut down their poker rooms. Others, like Mandalay Bay, now operate on a limited schedule instead of staying open 24/7. Since 2012, Las Vegas has seen 40 poker rooms close for good.
The return of poker to Caesars Palace is part of a broader renovation effort at a cost of almost $1 billion. The property has upgraded its main casino entrance, hotel lobby, casino dome, and porte-cochere. It also introduced the Flavian Sky Suites, a new high-limit gaming area, an updated bar, and the Colosseum Tower, formerly known as the Forum Tower, which now offers 440 redesigned rooms and suites.
McBurney highlighted the need for regular updates at the resort. “Something that we’ve learned over (the course of) six decades at Caesars Palace is that properties have to continue to reinvent themselves,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We hadn’t really touched the common spaces. So, we started this project of renovating the common spaces (at Caesars Palace) coming right out of COVID.”
Caesars has also been working on renovations at several of its other Las Vegas Strip properties. The company previously owned WSOP.com, Nevada’s only regulated online poker platform, but sold it last August.
Details on the new poker room’s exact layout and features have yet to be officially confirmed, but with the World Series of Poker approaching, Caesars Palace looks ready to bring live poker back to its casino floor.
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