Will Las Vegas Casinos Close Again?
Las Vegas is in serious trouble. The gaming industry is trying to put on a good face and attract people to the “new Vegas”, but people just aren’t coming. Admittedly I don’t have the stats to back up that claim, but I’ve been on the Strip enough that I have an inkling. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitor’s Authority does release visitor stats though, however the latest data available is for May when the casinos were still closed. In that month Las Vegas had a 96% year over year decline in visitors.
No doubt the June numbers won’t be nearly as dramatic, but I suspect they’ll still be bad. No matter how you feel about masks or the virus in general, Las Vegas made huge mistakes when it reopened. To start, the casinos largely let patrons go back to the “old normal” and that hurt the public perception of what was going on which in turn kept people from coming.
I Don’t Want the Casinos to Close
I want to make it clear. I love Las Vegas. I don’t want the casinos to close again. Honestly I wish Nevada’s casinos (and our Governor) had a little more foresight when they reopened. They never contemplated that we’d be in a position where they could potentially be forced to close again. Maybe if they had, they would have been a bit more cautious and forceful in implementing guest safety policies. The same policies that will help many people feel comfortable in visiting.
Rumors have been swirling in Vegas this week about the casinos potentially re-closing. Cases in Nevada have certainly increased while at the same time cases are spiking in California and Arizona. Like it or not, Vegas draws a lot of people from its neighboring states, especially now that conferences and international travel are largely shutdown.
Nevada Bars Closing Again Tonight
So Vegas is in huge trouble in my opinion and last night Nevada’s Governor Steve Sisolak began walking back our re-opening. As of 11:59PM tonight all bars in select Nevada counties will close. That includes bars in casinos as far as I am aware and any bars that don’t serve food. The Governor is releasing a list of counties tonight, however expect Clark County (where most of the people and cases are) to be on the list.
But the real question is whether Sisolak will force the casinos to close again and I don’t think he will. Don’t get me wrong. If the virus starts really spiking and we begin to have huge death increases it could happen, but outside of that it would be political suicide for Sisolak. The impact would be devastating.
Nevada also faces HUGE financial difficulties. We don’t have a state income tax and the state’s budget relies heavily on tourism & gaming. These closures took a huge chunk out of our budget and now the state has to figure out what to cut. It’s a dire situation and a closure of the casinos would only make that worse. Closing Nevada’s casinos again is a doomsday scenario.
Will Vegas Casinos Close Voluntarily
Even if I don’t think Sisolak will close Vegas casinos, that doesn’t mean that some may not close on their own. As the case numbers spike and people shut themselves in more, I do think some casinos will close voluntarily and others may be sold or never reopen again. Tons of casinos have murky futures including Tropicana where so many of my Vegas memories of yesterday were made.
So which casinos could potentially close? I won’t repeat rumors here since I haven’t seen any that have a ton of credibility, but one doesn’t need to look much past the big boys like MGM Resorts & Caesars Entertainment to find an answer. They both have still closed casinos and properties which are open, but are not drawing huge crowds. I could see either company closing one or more of their casinos if demand isn’t there.
Privately I have been predicting voluntary casino closures for the past couple of weeks. It costs a ton of money to operate these buildings and they simply aren’t drawing people in during the week. I also wouldn’t be surprised if casinos are allowed to go on split schedules where they close certain days. Will that happen? Time will tell.
Will Las Vegas Casinos Close Again? – Bottom Line
There are a lot of people asking “Will Las Vegas Casinos Close Again?” When it comes to a mandatory closing the power lies with Steve Sisolak. He’s asserted that he is following the advice of medical professionals, but no doubt the gaming industry is knocking on his door constantly to plead their case as well. For now no mandatory casino closures have been announced, but the loss of bars will be a bummer for many. Alas Vegas is still not Vegas.
Do you think Vegas casinos should close again? What do you think about the latest restrictions? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Cancelled my trip for last month. No regrets.
I am in Vegas right now. I would say that the % of people wearing masks inside the casinos was at least 90%. The vast majority were wearing them correctly too. Social distancing seemed pretty good.
Now the Fremont street experience was a different story entirely. Many not wearing masks and it was PACKED last night. Young people there to party with ZERO social distancing considerations. I was not at all comfortable there and avoided the area as much as possible. I think Fremont was a good example of why the clubs are shut down.
Yeah Fremont street is a world unto itself. Hard to calm people down there. My recent casino experiences have been similar on the Strip. Most people do wear masks, but that’s only since the government required it. I’m glad we are in a situation where more people are forced to wear them because I do believe it helps prevent the spread of disease but also so it helps to give people confidence to come and thus avoid a complete collapse of our local economy.
Dean claimed:
> the death rate from covid is about 1/3 to 1/2 of theregular flu
Don’t let facts get in the way of your opinion.
This season CDC estimated that, as of mid-March 2020, between 29,000 and 59,000 had died due to influenza illnesses.
So while the flu has long been considered a dangerous seasonal scourge, new data on the COVID-19 epidemic underscore a frightening fact: COVID-19 is even deadlier.
During a March 11 hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on coronavirus preparedness, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, put it plainly: “The seasonal flu that we deal with every year has a mortality of 0.1%,” he told the congressional panel, whereas coronavirus is “10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” per STAT news.
Read what I said, I said when the final #’S come in and they realize how many were exposed to the virus the death rate of those exposed will be 1/3 to 1/2 of the flu,….since you are having trouble understanding… If as has been estimated 40 million people have been exposed to covid since it probably arrived in January, {yes you can research both these claims if youknow how and are not too lazy} and 133, 000 have died ,that is a death rate of .0033, far less than the death rate % of those who catch the flu compared to those who die from it, I wasn’t going to post this because the largest % of the population have not the ability to neither reason, study ,nor think for themselves, they blindly follow like sheep what the tilted media reports,whether it is truth or not and refuse to search for themselves.
Let’s keep it positive. You are free to share your opinion, but in the future can we avoid things like, ” I wasn’t going to post this because the largest % of the population have not the ability to neither reason, study ,nor think for themselves, they blindly follow like sheep what the tilted media reports,whether it is truth or not and refuse to search for themselves.”
It doesn’t help any discussion. I personally look at all of the statistics and listen to many experts who come to a different conclusion. The one thing I hope we both (and everyone else) can agree on is that we all should look deeply at this when its over to see where we were right and where we were wrong. I know I’ll be doing that.
Why can’t the u.s just go 3months shut down like other countries did? They were able to flatten the curves this way. But u.s jus have too many complainers whiners and idiots that cries when they can’t go out for entertainments. This ppl is why u.s is the worst countries with rise of covid19 and surges.
At this point we need to do it for the rest of the year. But with the self entitled attitudes it’s not going to happen
As sad as the state of affairs is, do you think casinos will lower the ridiculous resort fees going forward?
They have already gotten rid of free parking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see targeted promos or even different packages where a resort fee could be waived, but I don’t think they will do it across the board. Resort fees are very entrenched in the industry now and these casinos are also looking to grab every dollar they can reasonably get.
That said, I have seen record low room rates lately that even when adding in the resort fee are very cheap.
I guess even this message board isn’t immune to strange musings from the hoaxers. I don’t recall any flu season in the past that killed entire families or filled up ICU units to the point of turning sick people away, but maybe my memory is failing me in my later years. Then again, I am sure many of those on ventilators are just doing it for the ‘gram and the cool bragging rights.
Although I disagree with the premise and weird made-up statistics of the hoaxers, I do believe it is everyone’s right to intentionally put themselves in harm’s way if they so choose. I have stopped traveling to limit my exposure, but if someone wants to kill themselves and their family, just try to do it somewhere away from my local hospital. Find a nice casino that caters to your nihilism and take yourself out a la Leaving Las Vegas.
Any business forcing anyone to wear a mask during this overblown fake “pandemic ” deserves to go out of business , many on here will disagree now, but as the final numbers come in and they realize the death rate from covid is about 1/3 to 1/2 of the regular flu , they will realize we’ve all been duped,wait and see, many in the medical profession and those doing random testing of the population are seeing antibodies in people who never knew they had it, are saying shutdowns and masks are not the answer, probably 40 to 60 million Americans have already been exposed and infected according to sliding graph charts they are using to estimate exposure ,most of which were asymptomatic cases,although only 3.3 million have been confirmed thus far., thats because only those with symptoms are being tested by the mainstream test sites.
It is not fear of the casino not sanitizing machines or their facilities that keeps me away. What does is the fear of others not wearing masks which protect me as well as others. Science points to the effectiveness of face coverings reducing the spread of the virus along with social distancing and hand washing.
+1
Until casinos are willing to absolutely enforce mask wearing and distancing requirements in indoor areas, any other moves are just window dressing. Just to clarify, I mean wearing a mask fully, none of this asinine idiocy where people wear a mask over their mouth but not their nose.
To each his/her own. Let the casinos stay open. People will make their choices as to the risk. If the foot traffic, revenue isn’t there then the casinos themselves will make the decision to close or not. It’s their dough. I think Nevada’s governor knows that. Thousands per day stream in via I-15 or the shuttle flights from SoCal and more from Arizona, the Phoenix area in particular where Covid is out of control. But the choice to travel to L.V. is theirs. The casinos want these visitors – Covid infected or not. They need the money. Cash. There are extremes in this crisis: Full lockdown, and wide openings. There are politicians, business people who could care less if hundreds were dropping dead, hospitalized per day in their town or state so long as the cash keeps rolling in. Money talks. Most people will make the choice of caution at this time. The world has 8 billion people and to Las Vegas that’s a gold mine of players.
I’m here too I think they should bring the mob back like in the day Corp took over vegas has gone to hell even before this political shit prices are over the moon no machine hit. Your better to go to smiths. It’s not the same place and it’s not good I’ll say this and shut up you used to have a steak dinner for 5.95 not even close food terrible
Sharon I agree. This is a very different Vegas than the one I grew up in. Honestly the Vegas of the late 1980’s and on that I experienced as a kid was the beginning of the corporate era and things have changed so much since even then.
While Vegas isn’t the same I would argue it’s more successful as a tourist destination than it was in the old days and that’s why that old Vegas will never come back unfortunately. Plus the mob did like to kill people I hear! 🙂
I’m in the Las Vegas casinos almost daily and I feel as safe as one can during a pandemic. The Venetian/Palazzo are doing an excellent job of cleaning the slot machines and gaming tables. Other casinos are also doing the job but at not quite the same level of frequency.
So if you can give up your old habit of either licking machines or other people and can where a mask when in public while social distancing you should be good.
* wear a mask , and i wish to blame auto-correct *
Auto correct is my worse enema.
Ron I will say the Venetian/Palazzo did look very clean and well staffed during my visit there a little over a week ago. They know quality and how to do things better than most for sure.
I was in Las Vegas this past weekend. It was the first time I had left my home for a trip in months. I had my mask on, hand sanitizer, and wiped surfaces when dining. I was amazed by how many people took off their masks and argued with security about wearing them or kept them under their chins. I can’t say I’m surprised that things are rolling back.
I just hope this is the full extent of the rollbacks and that we can get a handle on it to avoid more for the sake of the many people who rely on the casinos for their livelihood.