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Rivers Casino Philadelphia was the last of Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos to reopen after COVID-19 shutdowns, finally getting a restart July 17, and now it will be the first to close again since then.

The city of Philadelphia on Monday afternoon announced a Department of Public Health order that imposes many business restrictions effective Nov. 20-Jan. 1, including the shutdown of casinos within the city.

Rivers Casino Philadelphia opened in 2010 as SugarHouse Casino. It hosts 1,755 slots, 105 table games and a 28-table poker room. Sports betting and online gambling will be available later this year.

• Rivers Casino Philadelphia, one of nine live poker rooms in Pennsylvania, reopened after being closed since the March 15 shutdown to slow the coronavirus spread, according to a news release. The casino’s gaming floor had reopened on July 17. RELATED: Check out all Top US online casinos.
• Rivers Casino Philadelphia was previously known as Sugar House Casino and is located at 1001 N. In Philadelphia In the midstate, Hollywood Casino at Penn National in East Hanover.
• Five poker rooms reopened as of mid-November with Parx, the state’s largest, set to return in December. The city of Philadelphia added restrictions included another shutdown of Rivers Casino Philadelphia until at least Jan 1, taking away another option for live poker. One poker room continues to remain c onspicuously quiet – Wind Creek Casino.

Also affected are schools, indoor restaurant service, theaters, bowling alleys, museums, gyms, libraries, community centers, and more, “to help flatten the epidemic curve, prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, and reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths,” according to the city.

Rivers Philadelphia is the only casino operating within the city, although construction is nearing completion on the Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia that is to open in early 2021.

The Rivers Casino, owned by Rush Street Gaming, is one of the state’s largest and just recently reopened its poker room to join its slot machine and table game operations. Its sister property, Rivers Casino Pittsburgh, is unaffected by the order but endured its own week-long shutdown in early July due to a similar Allegheny County order that affected many businesses catering to the public.

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A Rivers Philadelphia spokesman offered no immediate comment on whether the casino would be closing at 12:01 a.m. Friday or exactly when.

Other PA casinos keep going, but with restrictions

Philadelphia’s announcement comes on the heels of an order by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that will close Detroit’s three commercial casinos for at least three weeks effective Wednesday.

Other jurisdictions may follow, similar to how a series of such mandatory shutdowns across states took place in mid-March when COVID cases first began spiking throughout the U.S. There are no indications as yet that a similar order will come in Pennsylvania affecting the industry statewide.

A Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesman said such decisions are left to the governor’s office, which relies on the state Department of Health.

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A spokeswoman for that department said by email Monday afternoon, “We are looking at options to ensure Pennsylvanians have access to our health care systems and our hospitals. We anticipate making further announcements this week.”

Casinos are already operating under state restrictions that limit them to 50% occupancy, mandate masks and social distancing, ban indoor smoking, and prevent alcohol from being served except to those who are having meals.

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Casino employees themselves see surge in cases

COVID cases have been increasing across Pennsylvania as well as the nation overall, and the number of affected casino employees shows the same trend.

The gaming board provided data to Penn Bets showing the casinos have reported 72 positive cases among employees just in the first half of November, up from 44 in the entire month of October. There have been 172 employee cases overall since the reopenings began in June.

Rivers Philadelphia places just fourth among the casinos, with 14 cases since reopening. The most have been reported by Parx with 47, Rivers Pittsburgh with 34, and Mohegan Sun Pocono with 15.

Even the new Live! Casino Pittsburgh, which doesn’t open to the public in Westmoreland County until next week, has already reported four cases among employees.

Parx has had 29 cases in the first half of November, though its representative told the Bucks County Courier Times early this month that none as of then had required hospitalization. The Courier Times published its story after a decision by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records required the gaming board to release specific casinos’ case counts, which it had previously withheld.

No information is available on how many COVID cases may be connected to members of the public visiting casinos.

Rivers Casino Philadelphia Poker

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Live poker rooms are slowly starting to come back in Pennsylvania, having been closed for much of the year due to the impact of the coronavirus.

The poker rooms at The Meadows and Rivers Casino Philadelphia opened today while Mount Airy and Mohegan Sun Pocono opened their poker rooms earlier this month.

“Poker players are excited to be back at the tables, enjoying the game they love,” said Peter Longi, assistant general manager at Rivers Casino Philadelphia in a press release announcing the opening. “Our reopening was carefully planned with the safety of our team and guests being the primary concern. We’re eager to welcome back our poker team.”

Safety precautions that have been implemented adhere to the COVID-19 Casino Reopening Protocols as determined by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) and include the addition of plexiglass barriers between players and limiting the number of players at a table to seven.

In addition, staff and players are required to wear masks, with sanitizer available at each table. Chips and cards are cleaned regularly.

With coronavirus cases on the rise in Pennsylvania, there is no guarantee that what is open now will remain so in the future.

The entire world is still very much in the grips of COVID-19, with the United States fast becoming one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to the deadly airborne virus.

Pennsylvania casinos have been reopening in accordance with the PGCB COVID-19 guidelines that were published back in May, outlining how the properties can become COVID-19 compliant.

However, the guidance at that time stated that “poker rooms are not authorized to operate due to players handling cards and chips” and poker room operations would be reevaluated as guidance from government health organizations were updated.

Live Poker Rooms in PA: Which are Open and Which are Closed

Online Poker in Pennsylvania

PokerStars PA is currently the only online poker room operational in the PA market, having run in the Keystone State for almost full year.

There is plenty of action on PokerStars PA, especially for those players that do not feel comfortable returning to the live poker scene.

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During October, players in PA can go onto PokerStars PA and win a share more than $175,000 that will be distributed over the duration of the Mystery House promotion.

Players will need to either collect three keys from three different rooms (as every room can only be entered once) or reach the final square on the special Mystery House board to win prizes.

The Mystery House promotion is currently underway and runs until November 1. It is important to note that players must opt-in through the PokerStars lobby to participate.

More Online Poker Operators Coming to Pennsylvania

888 is hopefully coming to the PA market having been approved by the PGCB as an Interactive Gaming Manufacturer back in late September.

This means that the runway is set for the second online poker operator to launch in the state. 888’s approval could mean that we will see its partner (the World Series of Poker) launch an online poker room under the WSOP PA brand. We could also see 888 launch its own branded online poker room as 888 PA.

However, the PGCB did not reveal any details around a launch plan for another online poker room.

Another possibility for the second online poker room in Pennsylvania could be partypoker PA. The operator is expected to enter the market before the year is out.

Partypoker parent company, GVC, in partnership with MGM owns ROAR Digital which runs the partypoker US Network in New Jersey.

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“PGCB staff have been working closely with Roar to launch the Party Poker and BetMGM apps, which will include interactive slots, table games and poker,” Doug Harbach, PGCB Communications Director told pokerfuse. “This includes testing of ROAR’s interactive gaming platform and games.”