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Gov. Cuomo Allows New York Casinos to Reopen at 25% Capacity
By Jeff Osienya Sep 07, 2020 IndustryPrivately run casinos in the Empire State have officially received the green light from the state government to get back to business on 9th September after 6 months of COVID-19 closures. Native American casinos, however, resumed operations months ago.After six long months of waiting, New York Governor, Andrew M. Cuomo finally announced that gaming facilities will be allowed to resume operations on 9th September with an occupancy limit of 25%. Like all other states in the country, Gov Cuomo had ordered a statewide shutdown of non-essential businesses including casinos on 16th March to tackle the raging Coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike many other states such as Arizona, Nevada, and Illinois which reopened their doors for business in May, June, and July respectively, Cuomo kept New York locked for longer as the Coronavirus infection cases kept on rising. The Governor’s decision to prolong the lockdown was heavily criticized by casino owners citing the fact that delayed reopening could end up costing the state over 5,000 jobs in the casino industry whereas the workers themselves even went as far as protesting vehemently to appeal for reopening at limited capacity. With the reopening announcement, it seems like Gov. Cuomo caved in at last.
The four fully-fledged, privately run casinos – the Tioga Downs in Tioga County, Rivers Casino in Schenectady, de Lago in Seneca County, and Resorts World Catskills in Sullivan County, can start taking in patrons on their floors again. This decision will also apply to the 11 racetrack casinos and VLT (video lottery terminal) across the state.
NYGC to Oversee Compliance with Reopening Safety Measures
As you would expect, casino customers will have to observe the usual health and safety guidelines that were recommended by the CDC. The measures include having masks on at all times except when eating and drinking; ironically, casino floors, for now, aren’t allowed to offer food and beverage amenities.
While casinos have been allowed to start serving customers, the office of the governor only deemed it okay to allow slot machine gaming, with the gaming machines switched off in alternating intervals to ensure the 6-feet social distance from one machine to another. No table games have been allowed to operate at the moment.
Additionally, the gaming facilities in the Empire State will have to deploy enough staffers that will control occupancy, sitting and traffic flow, and also execute thorough sanitization protocols. The casinos are also required to upgrade their ventilation, air filtration, and purification standards as needed before they can get back to business.
The state gaming regulator, the NYGC (New York Gaming Commission) has been tasked with oversight of this process to make sure that health and safety standards are upheld, starting with the installation of plexiglass barriers. For efficient supervision of this reopening process, the gaming ombudsman will install agents to keep an eye on the operations.
Native American Controlled Casinos Reopened Earlier
Tribal gaming houses have however already been operational for a couple of months now, after temporary shutdowns for three months from March to May, when the pandemic outbreak was at its peak in the Empire State. Owing to the Tribes’ sovereignty in the Native American gaming facilities were not constrained by the state-mandated COVID-19 shutdowns.
As such, the Oneida Indian Nation’s Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, Oneida County and the Seneca Nation’s casinos in Niagara Falls and Buffalo got back to business much earlier in June while the other privately owned commercial casinos had to abide by the state’s lockdown orders. Moreover, the Cayuga Nation’s small Lakeside Gaming Hall in Union Springs had even been in business since mid-May after a two-month pause.
A similar situation happened in Connecticut where the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes moved on with their phased reopening towards the end of May, against Gov. Ned Lamont’s advice, but there’s practically nothing that he could do about it by the law.
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