With Poker games seemingly in no position to return to Massachusetts casinos any time soon, many former Poker dealers at Encore Boston Harbor have begun to train for other permitted games like Blackjack.

To wit, the 88 poker tables — including a 16-table tournament room — at Encore Boston Harbor are the fifth-most of any casino in the world, according to Casino City data, trailing only Commerce Casino (200 tables), Hawaiian Gardens Casino (145) and The Bicycle Hotel & Casino (135) in California, and Foxwoods Resort Casino (94) in. Citing weak customer demand, Wynn Resorts announced today it is cutting the operating schedule at the Encore to four days a week. The 2,034-room Strip resort will be open Thursdays through Sundays.

Information and Reviews about Encore Boston Harbor Poker Room in Everett, including Poker Tournaments, Games, Special Events and Promotions. Attention Poker Rooms: Get your Real-Time Live Action on PokerAtlas!

Encore Spokesman Eric Kraus said that 70 Poker dealers at Encore have participated in a new program offered by the company to train for other permitted games, those mostly being Blackjack.

“Because we shut down the Poker Room and furloughed several of those Poker Room employees, we have started training those Poker dealers and others with game experience in dealing. We are offering them to train on Blackjack dealing mostly. We don’t like furloughing employees. They are family members. So, we tell them about all open positions and see if anyone furloughed is a good fit for those positions. If they’re furloughed and would be a good fit, we can bring them back to open positions. We invest a lot in our employees, whether finding them, training them and keeping them. We don’t want them to leave during a furlough.”

He said there are approximately 70 dealers of Poker that are or have re-trained for Blackjack, one of the only table games now allowed in the state.

At the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) meeting last Thursday, the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) gave one of its first updates on the possibility of returning Poker, and the long and short of that is Poker is currently not possible.

The IEB explained that Poker requires many people at the table to be worthwhile and profitable for the casino, and at the moment the best that can be done is four players at a time.

“In order to make Poker a safe game, we could put only about four people at a table,” said one of the members. “In discussions with operators, this would mean Poker would not be profitable. At this point, we wouldn’t recommend Poker until we can get more players at the table and do that safely.”

The IEB indicated some other states with gaming are returning Poker and allowing many people at a table. With COVID-19 restrictions as they are, it isn’t a course the MGC is willing to forge.

“That’s not what I would consider a safe situation for employees or players,” he said. “Poker at its heart is a marginally profitable game for casinos. We would at best get four players at a table and that’s a very, very low profit, it at all a profit, for casinos.”

At Encore, the Poker Room and Poker areas have largely been repurposed to accommodate more Blackjack tables at greater distances.

The Encore Boston Harbor casino-resort opens at 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 23, after years of planning, construction, and not a little controversy. Its official address is 1 Broadway in Everett.

Here is more on eastern Massachusetts’ largest recreational gambling hub by the numbers, according to Wynn Resorts, the Las Vegas-based company behind it.

Total square-footage. The entire property runs to 3 million square feet, including the casino, the hotel portion, the outdoor space, the grounds, etc.

Landscaping. The complex unfolds over 33 acres. There will be 800 trees more than 15 feet tall, 105,000 shrubs, and 61,000 flowers. There will be 115,000 square feet of patterned brick and 50,000 square feet of synthetic turf. A 44,000-gallon irrigation tank system will help water the landscaping via roof drainage.

Casino. It will be 210,000 square feet. There will be 3,158 slot machines, 143 table games, 88 poker tables, 231 table games total, and 60 high-limit slots, including two private rooms within the high-limit slots with three machines in each room.

Conference and meeting space. There will 50,000 square feet of it total, and include 10 breakout rooms and a 37,000-square-foot grand ballroom.

Spa. It will be 26,000 square feet, and include 17 treatment rooms, six stylist stations, two pedicure stations, four manicure tables, two makeup stations, four shampoo stations, and one barber station.

Hotel. There will be 671 guest rooms and suites. They will range in size from 650 square feet to 5,800 square feet. Wynn Resorts notes that the average size of a New England hotel room is 250 square feet. The thread count on the linen will be 507. The fitness center will be 3,648 square feet.

Restaurants and other eateries. The casino-resort will host 15 food and beverage options, including four independently owned places.

Shops. There will be five: Wynn Collection, Wynn Mens, Wynn Beauty, the Drugstore, and Watches of Switzerland.

Outdoor space. There will 26,000 square feet of it available to guests, hotel and otherwise.

Carousel. The casino-resort’s merry-go-round will have 10 horses, 83,000 flowers, and 11,000 jewels.

Ferries. What Wynn is calling the Encore Premium Harbor Shuttle is expected to take 28,393 trips per year via four vessels, ferrying riders from locations at the World Trade Center in the Seaport District and Long Wharf on the downtown Boston waterfront to the resort.

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Employees. A small army of 5,500 is expected to service the Encore Boston Harbor.

Special mirror. The Encore Boston Harbor will include one mirror from the original Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, which is now the site of Wynn Resorts’ flagship Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas.

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Encore Boston Poker Room Number