Despite initial reports that the renovated and rebranded Poker Palace casino in North Las Vegas would bring back the poker room, new owners of the property now say the cardroom won’t return.
Truckee Gaming acquired the casino in October and has been refurbishing the property. It will be Club Fortune Casino North when it reopens in mid-April. The company also owns a Club Fortune property in nearby Henderson.
The property previously featured low-stakes poker games, but it will now house only slot machines.
“Poker and live tables will not be there on opening,” Truckee Gaming CEO Ferenc Szony told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “With staffing and some of the other things that go on to get it open and get it going, we’re not going to have live games at this stage.”
Customer Demand Will Decide If Poker Returns
That could change in the coming months, however. Szony didn’t rule out bringing poker back, depending on customer demand.
“We definitely got licensed for it,” Szony said. “We’ll see. If the market wants it and demands it, we can always add it.”
The Poker Palace opened in 1974. Truckee acquired the property for $20 million. Renovation plans include adding new slots and gaming systems, a redesigned bar, a larger restaurant and kitchen, updated restrooms, new exterior and interiors, and a new sportsbook.
The company also plans to give preferred hiring for the property’s previous employees, although staff will be reduced from about 125 to 100.
Despite the poker room closing, the trend toward closing card-playing venues has reversed a bit in recent years. Caesars Palace reopened that property’s room in May, and several other rooms have opened across the country. However, Planet Hollywood closed the casino’s poker room in January after opening it just a few months earlier.
In other casino news, Boyd Gaming recently announced that the new Cadence Crossing Casino will open in late March. The property will be located in the southeast Las Vegas Valley on Boulder Highway and offer 10,000 square feet of gaming space and 450 slots.
