The Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway near Bangor, Maine has reopened its small poker room after a pandemic-caused shutdown that ended up lasting for more than four years. In reopening on Friday on a part-time, Thursday through Sunday basis, Hollywood Casino Bangor's refurbished room once again becomes the only live poker room in Maine at a state-licensed venue.
The room is tiny by the poker world's standards, offering three tables at the present time with a fourth one to be added shortly. For now only limit and no-limit hold'em, plus omaha, will be spread. Prior to its four-year closure, the room did offer some small daily tournaments, so those could return in the future.
Despite the limited options, the room's reopening is still a welcome sight for Maine's players, who since 2020 have had to travel to neighboring New Hampshire or to the Boston metro area to play poker at casinos or poker-only cardrooms. Maine law allows for only two casinos, and the other licensed venue, Oxford Casino in Oxford, has never spread poker. Maine has also never authorized poker-only cardrooms, removing that option as well for the state's players, and while the state has briefly considered online poker, that too has yet to become reality.
Redesigned poker room expands into former racebook space
The space at Hollywood Bangor now occupied solely by the reopened poker room used to also house a racebook for parimutuel wagering, though except for small electronic kiosks that remain, the race wagering is now more localized to the adjacent racing facility.
The casino's Director of Marketing, Alton Buzzell, told a Bangor news outlet that much work went into the remodeling, which was in the works for quite some time. New to the room will be a live linkup to Bravo Poker that will allow players to reserve seats remotely via the Bravo app while also showing exactly which games and stakes are being spread.
"Prior to COVID, those who have played here before may remember this was also the Racebook, so we've taken that out so that required some work here structurally," Buzzell told Bangor's Fox22 outlet. Regarding the partnership with Bravo, Buzzell added, "We didn't have that five years ago so investigating things like that, making sure that we have the right technology, the right tools, and the right environment for our players was a big thing."
Featured image source: US National Parks Service
