All eyes were on Las Vegas at Midnight as several casino reopened for the first time in 78 days since Governor Sisolak shuttered all casinos in the state of Nevada at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March. Casinos on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas were among the first to open, along with locals' casinos in the burbs. The Bellagio reopened, and any more Strip casinos will open on Friday.
Degens are gonna degen. Okay, it this instance, these degens were itching to gamble it up for 78 days and counting before they finally had a chance to scratch their itch. Las Vegas reopened at the stroke of Midnight to festive gamblers in a mood that was similar to New Years Eve that even included a countdown to the stroke of Midnight.
Hotel guests (Yes, out of towners were among the first gamblers to reopen) were greeted with champagne. Meanwhile, the casino floor was officially reopened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Of course, there were special guidelines for reopening, including temperature checks at every entrance and gamblers are offered a mask (but not required to wear one). All employees must wear masks. In case you were wondering, the temperature checks are done by a machine that's six feet away and they check your wrist. Gamblers can have enter as long as you are 100.4 degrees or lower. You're able to recheck your temp in 15 minutes if you're barely above the threshold.
Casinos had to modify gaming areas to adhere to social distancing precautions. However, even with the new systems in place, casinos were still crowded.
The D and the Golden Nugget in downtown Vegas were among the few casinos that reopened at Midnight. The Golden Nugget had a plethora of hand sanitizing stations and dispensers with disinfectant wipes. However, according to one reports, no one was actually using them. People were required to wear masks, but not everyone wore them properly.
Slot machines rows were changed. Casinos simply removed seats and closed some of the middle slot machines in a bank row of slots.
At Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, they had almost 100 locals lined up before Midnight to get their gambling on. At GVR, they have six-handed craps tables, four-handed roulette, and three-handed blackjack tables. No poker as of yet.
As expected, plenty of locals fired up cigarettes at the slots. Hey, they go hand-in-hand right? Of course, those gamblers slid their mask down to take a puff on their ciggie.
The Venetian wanted to be among the first casinos on the Las Vegas Strip to reopen. The Bellagio and MGM will have special plastic partitions to separate gamblers at table games including blackjack and craps. Also at MGM properties, gamblers at the roulette wheel will have to wear masks.
Mayor Goodman got her social experiment. All cautious eyes will keep an eye on the early-bird gamblers. If they get sick and show signs of infection, then Vegas clearly reopened too early.
