Harrah's Poker Tournaments Chester

• Slots revenues at the Chester casino were $6,706,367 for March 2020 compared to $19,250,731 in March 2019, a slip of 65.1 percent, and table games brought in a little more than $2 million, a.
• The second-to-last Main Event of the 2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit season has come and gone. A field of 269 turned up to Harrah's Chester with $1,600 to spare for the three-day event.
• DAILY ATLANTIC CITY POKER TOURNAMENTS Ante up for round-the-clock hot Atlantic City poker action at Harrah’s Resort We feature 40 tables with Total Bad Beat Jackpot on all no-limit and limit poker games.

Pennsylvania had a mixed bag of big gambling news this week.

2012 WSOP Circuit - Harrah's Chester - Main Event - Poker tournament results, including winners and their payouts and winnings.

Live poker remains unlikely to resume anytime soon, and one card room closed permanently.

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An unlicensed slot casino hidden in plain sight was raided and closed, netting 57 illegal machines and more than $67,000 in cash.

And Tiz the Law, the heavy favorite at the Kentucky Derby, has surprising connections to PA despite being a New York horse.

Poker in PA remains strictly online, Harrah’s poker room folds

While all PA casinos have reopened with health safety restrictions in place, with South Philly Race and Sportsbook also opening this week, not so poker rooms. That’s because card-handling, chips and proximity make the game a potential virus spreader.

Now, former Harrah’s Philadelphia cardroom employees have told PlayPennsylvania they were let go and told the poker venue was never reopening. A casino rep declined to comment.

The location was a World Series of Poker room. Harrah’s corporate parent company Caesars Entertainment owns the popular WSOP brand.

Meanwhile, other shuttered poker rooms remain closed, and none has petitioned PA regulators for reopening. But online poker remains a viable option through PokerStars PA, with more sites coming to PA soon.

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Illegal slot venue went unnoticed before recent raid

PA has a largely unaddressed problem with unregulated, untaxed, unlicensed gambling devices — tens of thousands of them.

Josh Shapiro, who is running for re-election as the state’s attorney general, has decided to hold off on enforcement and let either the state Supreme Court or the legislature make a definitive decision on the fate of the unlicensed machines.

That has meanwhile left enforcement to local jurisdictions. In the first large-scale raid on illegal gambling devices since winter, law enforcement last week seized $67,768 in cash and 57 unlicensed slot machines. The 777 Casino operated in a PA strip mall between a dollar store and a pawn shop in tiny Kenhorst Borough, policed by neighboring Reading.

Charges are pending, according to the Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

Tiz the Law has PA heart and soul

Tiz the Law, the horse favored for the rescheduled Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5, is a New York horse with a PA training team and numerous shareholding owners from PA.

Trainer Barclay Tagg, assistant trainer Robin Smullen and her niece, exercise rider Heather Smullen, all began their careers with the ponies in Chester County, PA.

Of the 35 people who own a portion of Tiz, seven are from PA.

A Derby win offers Tiz’s trainers a do-over if they then go on to win the Preakness in October.

Tagg and Smullen also trained Funny Cide. That horse won the Derby and Preakness in 2003 but placed third in the Belmont, a race Tiz has already won in this mixed-up racing season.

Pent-up demand

“It’s a lotta people,” said Jordan Cleveland, a card dealer at a Spanish 21 table. “When they first opened the doors, people were running in here.”

Cleveland didn’t expect so many people to show up, believing there would be more concern about getting sick from the virus. But she understands the pent-up demand for activities to puncture the monotony of isolating lockdowns and business closures.

“They’ve been in the house for so long. Only certain stores were open. Like, I know I got tired of going to Walmart,” Cleveland said, and laughed. “People just wanna get out of the house, do something different, have some entertainment.”

Last month, Pennsylvania’s Gaming Control Board released a 10-page document outlining minimum standards facilities would need to meet in order to reopen. Union officials say they have pushed Harrah’s parent company to better protect workers from the virus.

UNITE HERE Local 54 represents around 500 employees at Harrah’s Philadelphia, according to Donna DiCaprio, the union’s financial secretary and treasure.

“We don’t want this turning into the meatpacking industry. And we don’t want to see what happened in Las Vegas happen here,” DiCaprio said of operations that could put workers and guests at risk.

In Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, COVID-19 cases spiked two weeks after casinos reopened with what union leaders say were inadequate safety measures on gaming floors.

Local 54 has been in negotiations with Caesars to increase worker safety protections, like mandatory health screenings, protective gear, and 10 days of “COVID pay” if an employee or their family member falls ill. DiCaprio believes those and other measures have made employees feel more comfortable, though some issues remain unresolved.

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DiCaprio also wants for Caesars to step up when it comes to health care. The union has been covering medical insurance expenses for workers while they have been out of work the last several months, but now those reserves are depleted, and DiCaprio wants to see the company to do more for its employees.

“Caesars is sitting on a pile of cash,” she said.

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For Belva Wilson, the extra space from social distancing and improved cleanliness was a nice improvement.

“If you come real early like this, it’s not crowded,” said Wilson, perched alone at a bank of video slot machines.

She hoped that after gaming had been shut down for so long, she might stand a better shot of a decent payout.

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“But so far, I haven’t won a thing,” she said.

Wilson has some health concerns about being inside an enclosed space with hundreds of other people, though after months spent hunkering down out of state, she said it feels good to have a little fun doing something familiar and exciting. But while she used to come to Harrah’s a few times a week, she expects to cut back given the public health situation.

“I’m not sure I’ll be coming as often,” Wilson said. “Unless it picks up with the winnings.”