Florida casinos opening this week

Florida may still be a hot bed for COVID-19, but it hasn’t stopped state legislators from giving the go ahead for casinos to open this week.

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa and Bestbet Jacksonville both announced they will open their doors this week. The Seminole will open on Thursday, May 21, while Bestbet will open the next day on Friday.

Bestbet is one of the largest poker rooms in the state with 70 poker tables, while Seminole is also fairly large with 46 tables. Neither casino will have jam-packed tables when they open and will be following some new rules brought on by the pandemic.

At Bestbet all guests entering the casino will be required to wear a face mask. No other rules have been announced by Bestbet yet, but you can be sure there will be more, including limiting the number of players at tables to allow for social distancing. “We will be practicing social distancing guidelines through our facility,” was posted on the Bestbet Twitter feed with no further details given.

At the Seminole all guests will also be required to wear face masks to enter. They will also be placing plexiglass dividers at all tables to allow for social distancing and anyone entering the casino, guests and staff, will be required to have their temperature taken. Anyone that registers a temperature above CDC guidelines will be asked to leave.

On the other side of the country casinos in California and Las Vegas have started announcing their intentions and plans for reopening.

In San Diego the Jamul Casino had a soft opening on Monday with plans to open fully to customers on Thursday. Jamul Casino is a small venue with only 10 poker tables which could make running multiple game while also maintaining social distancing difficult.

In Las Vegas Wynn Resorts announced they will not be offering poker right away when they are allowed to open. The same goes for the Wynn Resort in Boston. It was not announced how long the Wynn would keep the poker rooms closed once the casinos reopen.