World Series of Poker U-Turn on Mask Mandate

Organisers have confirmed that this year’s World Series of Poker will be played without the unpopular mask mandate in place. After an uncertain run up to the biggest poker festival of the year, the Covid-19 restrictions have finally been sorted out, for better or for worse.

The WSOP Twitter account posted that Gov. Steve Sisolak had agreed to a mask exception rule for gatherings with a compulsory vaccine mandate. Therefore players will be allowed to remove their masks while seated.

NV Emergency Directive 050 reads:

"This policy expansion gives an option for convention organizers to choose between requiring masks indoors for all attendees, regardless of vaccination status, or ensuring that all attendees are vaccinated, in which case fully-vaccinated attendees can remove their masks."

This switch, while positive in the eyes of most players, creates yet more reasons for the poker community to have an argument.

For starters, the rule is that all participants must be vaccinated to be allowed to play. Whether you agree that this is the proper way to do this, or not, there is logic behind the decision. But the dealers have no such mandate to be able to work.

This has infuriated many players who claim it makes a mockery of the whole precautionary process.

Caesars insists that they have done all that they can to encourage their staff to get vaccinated without mandating. There is also the issue of risking there not being enough dealers to smoothly run the event if many are forced out of their jobs. This point has been raised a lot as the world slowly returns to normal.

To date there doesn’t look to be many boycott threats being posted on social media, unlike after when the vaccine mandate hit the headlines. So, for now it looks as if everything is ready in place for the first “real” World Series of Poker since 2019. We can’t wait!