Governor Gavin Newsom finally gave Los Angeles poker rooms the green light to reopen this week for the first time since November. But the card rooms will be forced to operate under strict guidelines that may not be appealing to some poker players.

When will Los Angeles poker rooms be granted permission to return to normalcy? (Image: discoverlosangeles.com)

The California governor lifted a county-wide ban on in-person dining, live poker, and other activities. Los Angeles County has the most coronavirus cases (1,085,044) and COVID-19 deaths (15,592) of any county in the country, by a wide margin. As a result, Newsom has taken extreme measures, which clearly hasn’t been working, to limit the spread of the virus.

The Democratic politician, however, is hopeful the county can turn it around. As such, he is now permitting restaurants and card rooms to begin accepting customers outdoors. That means if you’re looking for a legal card game in Southern California, you’ll have to play outside.