Casinos in Las Vegas are back to business after 11 weeks of COVID-19 shutdowns. The volume of visitors on the first day of reopening is a sign that the state’s crushed economy will soon recover.
Nevada’s lifeblood has sprung back to life after 78 days of deafening silence that was caused by the raging spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. Governor Sisolak ordered the closure of a total of 219 commercial casinos across the state on 18th March, an order that instantly brought the gaming industry to a screeching break. Right after the closure, things in the Silver State fell like dominoes, with thousands of tourism sector employees losing their job at a rate higher than all other metropolitan areas in the United States.
After the first casino doors opened a minute past midnight on Thursday 4th June, hope for the state was rekindled as it made the first strides towards recovering the lost revenue. Experts have however projected that it will take an entire year for the state to recover, but the recovery could be faster in case the demand for tourism and gaming continues to grow.
The First Night of Reopening Exceeded Expectations
Even before the Vegas Strip was reopened on Thursday, casino resort operators had to adjust accordingly so that they could keep up with the swelling demand of visitors. Even before the clock struck midnight, visitors had already flooded into the streets of Vegas, waiting in line to be served by attendants who were all smiles. It was no longer a ghost town.
For most casino properties that were open in the gaming Mecca, there was as much activity on the casino floors as is usually the case on a regular weeknight. Casino houses like Golden Gate and Golden Nugget for instance recorded impressive numbers right off the bat.
Interestingly, business on this first day seemed to be so good that many of the Phase Two reopening directives such as 50% occupancy rates and social distancing were unheard of. Fair enough, the casino staff held their end of the bargain by following directives such as setting gaming tables and slot banks further apart from each other and limiting the number of players per gaming round. However, the level of excitement that the occupants were in made it rather difficult for them to observe some of the safety directives. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?
More Casino Resorts to Reopen in the Coming Days
As pompous as the first day was, not all casino resorts were open. Executives from different gaming company’s have however come forward to indicate that their properties will be following suit to welcome back guests into their facilities. Tony Rodio, the CEO of Caesar’s released a statement announcing that three of the company’s properties i.e. Caesars Palace, Flamingo, and Harrah’s Las Vegas would be making a comeback on Friday, 5th July and Excalibur would then follow a few days later on 11th June.
As Sin City and Nevada at large continues with the Phase Two plans, interest from tourists is growing by the day. Orbitz, the website popularly known for travel fare aggregation and metasearch has recorded an increased volume of hotel and flight searches for Las Vegas for the week of 4th to 11th June. Moreover, McCarran International Airport airlines such as Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines have also recorded a surge in bookings for June since the governor’s reopening announcement last week.
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