The global COVID-19 pandemic sent live poker into lockdown virtually overnight. No chips being riffled at the poker tables, no queues for male restrooms around the world in casinos, no pictures posed with trophies at 3am.

Las Vegas, as we reported back in Spring, was turned into a ghost town. That was months ago, however. Since then, casinos have been steadily re-opening around America in particular, despite recent days of COVID-19 deaths still hitting over a thousand deaths in any 24-hour period.

Whether a case of economic pressure, staff protests or just plain greed, casinos have re-opened. We even write about Joey Ingram risking his own life to find out exactly what the experience was like. The crib notes on that are all good; Joey lived, he continues to make those YouTube videos you know and love.

Live poker and COVID-19, however, seem to go together as naturally as Joey Ingram and YouTube thumbnail clicks. The spread of the disease – or perhaps, more accurately, the failure to stop the spread – has been attributed this week to Las Vegas casinos.