Towers Casino Grass Valley California
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It’s time to shuffle up and deal at the grand opening of the Towers Casino and Card Room Friday in Grass Valley. Located in the Holiday Inn Express building at 115 Bank St., the card room picks up from where the Gold Rush Gaming Parlor left off, said owner Jamey Robinson, who bought the business with her husband John. GRASS VALLEY (CBS13) — The Towers Casino and Card Room in Nevada County says six Department of Justice agents shut them down Tuesday night for violating the state’s public health order. Owner Jamey Robinson says there was no indication from Nevada County Department of Public Health or local law enforcement that she was doing anything wrong. Towers Casino in Grassvalley California was shut down by the DOJ 5/19/20.
GRASS VALLEY (CBS13) — As some casinos set a reopening date for June, one has been up and going since Monday.
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The Towers Casino in Grass Valley announced they are open for card games, despite the state order not to. But on Tuesday night, employees told CBS13 they had been told to shut down by order of the governor.
It’s unclear how this will be enforced. CBS13 reached out to the Nevada County Health Department about enforcement of the health order but did not hear back before our deadline Tuesday night.
There’s a huge focus on sanitization at the casino. A sign to “wash before you play” is on the front door and masks are required for everyone. About a dozen photos posted on their Facebook page show people playing cards with masks and gloves on, but not much room for social distancing.
Some people in Grass Valley said it’s exciting to see the place open up.
“I’d feel safe going anywhere and if I don’t I’d wear a mask and gloves,” said Kindra Nelson.
According to the Towers Casino website, employees are following strict rules including sanitizing chips after they are cashed in, sanitizing cup holders after every use, and wiping down the table railings after each person.
The early reopening is sparking interest from other businesses in the community.
“Well, I think ‘why am I not open but they are?’ And good for them because I think it’s time that we do it,” said Bob Thompson, who owns the Cork 49 wine bar.
Thompson is preparing to reopen his wine bar while following every single guideline the county is asking for.
“It’s a little difficult to follow everything that they want. But we’re trying, we want to open these gates,” he said.
Nevada County has received approval from the state to move faster through phase 2. This gives a green light to malls, child care facilities and restaurants for dine-in as long as safety precautions can be met. But not casinos.
But as bottom lines get closer, businesses are getting antsy.
“If I don’t open and make money, I’m a week away, two weeks away from closing forever and we don’t want that. Not in this county, not in this town,” Thompson said.
Shut down by the coronavirus pandemic for two full months, one Northern California card room is taking a gamble.
Towers Casino in Nevada County appears to be California’s first non-tribal gambling establishment to reopen for business amid the COVID-19 crisis, doing so at the start of this week in violation of the statewide stay-at-home mandate.
The card room, located just off Highway 49 in the center of Grass Valley, announced Monday on its website and social media pages that it is back open “after 62 days of closure” and is “following the strictest environmental health guidelines to ensure the safety and welfare of our employees and patrons.”
A pop-up message on Towers Casino’s website lists sanitation measures and social distancing protocols being put into place, which include “rigorous disinfecting” and “stringent sanitizing” of cards and casino chips “before and after usage.” The announcement does not specifically mention COVID-19 or the coronavirus.
The decision to reopen appears to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, which has recently been loosened in a number of ways for restaurants and retailers throughout many parts of the state, but not yet for any of California’s card rooms or gambling halls, even with modifications.
Nevada County’s public health office earlier this month allowed its own county-level stay-at-home order to expire, but pointed out in an FAQ page on its website that county residents and businesses still must abide by the statewide order, which it notes is mandatory.
Towers includes a six-table poker room plus tables for California blackjack, a variant of the game that is legal in the state’s card rooms.
The message from management says it will allow a smaller number of players into the facilities; will implement social distancing measures at the tables, though the exact measures are not specified on the website; will require face masks or shields for all staff and patrons; and that it will stop offering communal food and self-serve coffee.
Photos of Monday’s poker action posted by Towers to Instagram shows guests wearing masks or bandannas, but no social distancing measures can be seen. The one table shown is at its usual capacity — nine players plus one dealer, seated in an oval with about a foot or two of space between each of them. In one photo, one of the players takes off his mask to sip from a beer bottle while seated at the table.
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Owner Jamey Robinson did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The governor recently urged tribal leaders, who operate casinos on land that is considered sovereign and thus not under Newsom’s or California’s legal jurisdiction, to postpone early reopening, which he said “deeply concerns” him.
Towers in Grass Valley, though, is not sovereign; it is among more than 70 card rooms licensed by the state. California card rooms are overseen by both the Gambling Control Commission, which deals mainly with licensing and policy issues; and the state attorney general office’s Bureau of Gambling Control, which deals with enforcement and investigates complaints related to card rooms.
Commission spokesman Fred Castano said card rooms are “categorized as Stage 3,” referring to Newsom’s four-phase plan for the gradual reopening of nonessential businesses that have been shut down since the stay-at-home order was issued March 19.
Phase 3 businesses, which are considered to represent a higher risk for virus transmission, have not been cleared by the governor’s office to open in any of the state’s 58 counties.
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Castano deferred to the bureau and attorney general’s office for further comment about Towers Casino.
“To protect its integrity, we are unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation,” the state AG’s office said in an emailed response to The Sacramento Bee.
Phase 3 of California’s reopening plan would include personal services like barbershops and salons that require close physical proximity; entertainment venues like movie theaters and card rooms that bring moderate-sized crowds into one room; and the resumption of professional sports, minus spectators. It could be phased in at different speeds for different parts of the state, as Phase 2 was, and Newsom suggested Monday that salons could be “weeks” away from being allowed to reopen.
Towers Casino is licensed by the California Gambling Control Commission, and its license has not faced any recent administrative action by the commission.
There are 73 licensed card rooms in California. Towers is among five listed by the state Bureau of Gambling Control as being in the Northern California area. Eleven more are in the separate Sacramento region, which it defines as Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties.
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