NASHUA – The River Casino & Sports Bar reopened last week with new renovations and offerings, including a Granite State-themed game.

Jim Rafferty, president and general manager of the charitable gaming facility, used his time during the pandemic break to make customer’s experiences more fun.

Some changes include a new sound system, updated food and beverage menus and opening up more space for a new game.

The centerpiece of the improvements is the casino’s New Hampshire 21 card game.

It is similar to Spanish 21, which is a variant of the popular card game blackjack, but with The River’s own local twist.

Rafferty explained that Spanish 21 is an international game that has been adapted and personalized in each one of its markets.

“We’ve been dealing it for years now, but it just kept on getting stronger and stronger in terms of customer interest,” Rafferty said.

He added that people really enjoy the down match feature of the game. The River then decided to convert all their Spanish 21 tables to New Hampshire 21 tables and offer their own version of the game.

Director of Operations Sean Johnson said there are a few subtle differences between New Hampshire 21 and Spanish 21, which are both based off bonus bets. He explained the most popular bonus bet is called the match the dealer. The addition the casino offers with this game is the down match, explaining that there are two separate match the dealer bets available. He said they took the most popular aspect of the game and doubled it for the player. Having come up with the game themselves, Johnson said it’s considered a big improvement off of Spanish 21.

“So we saw Spanish 21 becoming more popular than blackjack around here, and we thought that we could model a game and improve upon it, so that’s where New Hampshire 21 came in,” Johnson said.

Now, there are seven tables offering the game. These tables feature a familiar design on them as well, with a touch of the New Hampshire state seal worked in. However, given the current circumstances with COVID-19, these tables will be limiting the number of players. In order to accommodate the seven tables offering the game, Rafferty said the casino opened up the whole poker room to that game.

“I think it’s fun that we can all say this is the way we play this game in New Hampshire,” Rafferty said. “It has both up and down matches, has a couple of extra bonus pays – it’s just a more fun game.”

The casino’s grand re-opening was Thursday, and now the facility will be operating at 50 percent occupancy after being closed since March 16. Aside from that, other safety measures include taking customers’ temperatures at the door, along with a questionnaire on their health, which Rafferty said are both required by the state. In addition, people must wear face masks when not consuming food.

The casino is located at 53 High St. and will be opening with the same hours of operation as before, which is 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 1 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.