Is a reopening date for Playground Poker Club in the cards?

Posted on: July 23, 2020 11:54 PDT

With Gatineau’s Casino du Lac-Leamy reopening its doors on Thursday, poker players in the province of Quebec are wondering when Playground Poker Club, located just outside of Montreal, will shuffle up and deal once again.

Loto-Québec ordered all casinos across Quebec to close on March 12th due to COVID-19, but the government announced that some properties may resume operations this month, with some slated to reopen between now and August 3rd.

Under the new restrictions, Casino du Lac-Leamy will be limited to 250 people per section, with a maximum restriction of 1,000 gamblers allowed on property at one time.

Located spitting distance from Ottawa, the nation’s capital, Casino du Lac-Leamy is providing gamblers from the Ottawa area with an opportunity to play slots and table games once again. Casinos in Ontario, including the Rideau Carleton Casino (which is slated to be rebranded as Hard Rock Ottawa), continue to remain closed.

The province of Ontario currently limits indoor gatherings to 50, a number too small and restrictive for a casino to operate at a profit.

While Casino du Lac-Leamy has reopened its slot machines and table games, its OK POKER Room (its actual name, not our assessment) remains closed.

The closure means that poker players hoping to ante up at Casino de Montreal when it resumes operations on August 3rd may be out of luck.

What’s more, there’s still no word on when Playground Poker Club, located in Kahnawake, Quebec, will resume operations. The property is a favorite among North American poker players and was supposed to host the WPTDeepStacks tournament in April before the property shut down in response to the pandemic.