Casinos in the state of Nevada have opened up once more this week. The first customers started gambling in Vegas on Thursday, after nearly 80 days that the facilities stood empty, in a bid to stop the spread of novel coronavirus.
Casinos in suburban Las Vegas were the first to open their doors one minute after midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. Guests waited patiently in line to be let into the doors and were met with a strange new reality – dealers wearing masks or, in some cases, standing behind protective shields.
The iconic Bellagio fountain, one of the symbols of Las Vegas, was restarted on Thursday and a number of casino resorts opened up on the Strip. Casinos will have to adhere to strict safety measures if they want to reopen, including the use of hand sanitizer, face masks, disinfected dice, temperature checks and a limited number of players at game tables and slot machine stands.
Resort owners are obligated to prepare a detailed heath safety plan for the regulatory board before they are allowed to reopen.
The head of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Sandra Douglass said: “I’m optimistic that customers will see that gaming properties invested time and effort to welcome them back to a safe and entertaining environment.”
The closure of all the state’s casinos was a controversial decision from the beginning, ever since Governor Steve Sisolak gave his emergency directives on March 17th.
Unemployment in Nevada topped 28% and the state lost literally billions of dollars each month. Property owners and regulators criticized the state authorities for the closure, saying that it would lead to a death sentence for Nevada’s economy.
On the other hand, the government was committed to doing all it could to stop the spread of the virus.
Now that the casinos have reopened, not all resorts are rushing to open. Many of them rely heavily on air traffic and mass social gatherings, and these industries will take much longer to recover. Operators such as Caesars Entertainment have already stated that they won’t be opening their Las Vegas Strip properties just yet.
