Nevada Gov. Sisolak Weighs New Coronavirus Restrictions as Casino Operators Face Uncertainty
Posted on: November 18, 2020, 11:38h.
Last updated on: November 19, 2020, 10:33h.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is intimating about new health restrictions on Nevada gaming properties as COVID-19 cases continue to escalate. Las Vegas casinos have yet to fully recover from earlier closings.
Without providing any specifics, the Democratic governor left open the possibility on Wednesday that he could once again shutter casinos. Experts worry about further financial impact to the casino industry, which is already stricken with weekday closures and revenue losses from months of closings.
“My administration is exploring all mitigation options available to get this under control,” Sisolak told reporters. “We will have to wait and see what happens next week.”
He says he is “attempting to protect our very fragile economy.” It is like “walking a tightrope to balance public health and economic impacts,” the governor explained.
With just days to go before Thanksgiving, Sisolak announced he will detail “very soon” the next steps to address the state’s surge. On Nov. 10, Sisolak encouraged Nevadans to remain at home as a way to curb the new wave in the outbreak. But for now, casinos remain open.
When asked about possible new restrictions, Stephen M.?Miller, director of UNLV’s?Center for Business and Economic Research, where he also teaches economics, said Sisolak’s recent Stay at Home 2.0 directive “was light on specifics.
“If you can work from home, do so. Wear a mask at all times.?In 14 days, reevaluation will occur,” Miller summarized the plan.
You probably need more than 14 days to see significant effects, since positive tests, hospitalizations, and deaths follow a dynamic path,” Miller told Casino.org. “If the curves continue?to climb for the rest of the 14 days — six left — then we will probably see restrictions on gathering-together sectors?— restaurants, bars, gyms, churches, casinos, and so on.”
When asked about casinos, Anthony Cabot, Distinguished Fellow of Gaming Law at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, called the “rapid escalation of COVID-19 … unwelcome news.” He noted how travelers continue to be hesitant about boarding a plane, and there are “growing issues in California.” Both factors impact visitor counts in Nevada, he added.
We have to wait to see if the governor directs these new restrictions at the casino market or to other businesses,” Cabot told Casino.org. “Speculating on whether these enhanced restrictions will impact the tourist casinos is challenging to predict.”
Nationally, Stephen Miller urges a bipartisan fiscal relief plan to help businesses and workers in any sector which requires customers to gather together in public.
Miller further noted the economy recovered only “about one half of the loss of economic activity that occurred in March and April…. The recovery has slowed and could head South again.”
Anthony Cabot adds Nevada’s economy “is literally in the balance” and requires a successful rollout of the coronavirus vaccines.
Several States Begin to Shutter Casinos
Other states have begun closing gaming venues because of the surge in coronavirus cases. Illinois’ commercial casinos close starting on Friday. There is no reopening date yet.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that Michigan’s tribal and commercial casinos were to close as of Wednesday. New Mexico started to shutter tribal casinos on Monday.
Rivers Casino Philadelphia will be closed starting Friday until Jan. 1. On Thursday, Ohio kicked off a three-week retail curfew between 10 pm and 5 am. Massachusetts also has cut hours at its three commercial casinos.
Elsewhere, Atlantic City casinos remain open. But restaurants — including those in Atlantic City casinos — were ordered not to serve food or beverages indoors between 9 pm and 5 am.
Sisolak Recovers in Isolation at Home
On Friday, Sisolak tested positive for coronavirus. He said he had “mild head congestion.” He remains quarantined at his Carson City home.
He is not alone. On Wednesday, Nevada saw 1,665 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths.
In total, the pandemic has led to 125,459 cases and 1,947 deaths in Nevada. Also, this week the state saw the highest number of patients in hospitals because of the pandemic.
Faced with the surge, Alan Feldman, a former MGM Resorts International executive who now is affiliated with UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, recently told Casino.org a key to boosting tourism in Las Vegas depends on how safe travelers feel.
“It is hard to imagine a world in which we don’t see more restrictive operating environments for US retail casinos across the next two quarters,” adds Chris Grove, a financial analyst with Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, during a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The only questions are how restrictive measures will be, and what specific form those measures will take.”
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Last Comments ( 81 )
Please....the last shutdown did not stop the spread. Ghosttown vegas if no conventions and sisolak gets tax revenue from liquer and pot stores that remain open. Sorry sisolak you do not have the authority to be a hitler.Herd immunity with the vaccine will stop this mess...but it might be too late for vegas and the right time for deadwood south dakota. The poor owner of a shoestore had to close from day one....but walmart sold shoes from day one...tje hypocracy has to stop. OAS
It appears that allot of Governors are about to be replaced by doubles .. clise the restaurants, keep the Casino's running ..Ambassador Mount
People, people, people...so many opinions. I smoke, smoking is not the reason people are getting corona virus, if that's the case a lot more people would have it, so that sounds stupid. I don't agree with lock downs, because the government is not and can not support everyone. What's the solution? I don't know, all you can do is take it 1 day at a time. Some people pray, but the reality of it all is that people are dying, maybe the World is changing, or maybe they created this virus to kill off a lot of people. To the people that believe in God. Y isn't your savior saving these lives? I believe in Reality, and the reality of what's going on is controlled by man, wickedness. To the people that have passed, their the lucky ones, they no longer have to worry or feel any pain or sickness, or be confused, or wonder how their going to survive in a world that's controlled by man.
Unpopular opinion. As a casino worker. I say we shut down from now until Christmas (it’s slow anyways), once we re-open ban smoking in the casinos. Also, in the casinos, ban eating in the BINGO room (if the casino has it). If Sisolak doesn’t want to shut down the casinos fully, then close the casinos from 10pm to 8am (no mass layoffs), and ban smoking in the casinos, at least until the pandemic subsides or we have a vaccine. Banning smoking and keeping socially distant in the casinos would help, IMO.
So glad some people take wearing a mask seriously. We are the only country that has messed up so big that so many have been lost to this virus. Other countries locked down and wore masks. But because we didn’t have a leader like other countries that have controlled the virus now more and more keep dying on the 3rd surge. What is so difficult about wearing a mask to keep your fellow human beings healthy. Just wear the mask.
All I know is that I've been in Vegas 20 years.. the strip used to be a jewel.. now it's a wasteland