Nevada’s Governor Sisolak Plans to Restart Gaming in The State

Governor Steve Sisolak announced yesterday that following this weekend, a press conference is planned to be held on Tuesday, May 26. During that conference, analysis of the data trends concerning the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in the state will be conducted. Should the analyzed data keep a positive or consistent trend following the Memorial Day Weekend, Sisolak plans to announce the date for Phase 2 of reopening businesses in the state of Nevada.

Nevada’s casinos have been closed since mid-March following the stay at home orders by Sisolak. Measures were implemented to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) which heavily impacted the state’s economy. Many workers were furloughed, but some 300,000 people also filed for unemployment benefits. Casino resorts and casinos were not included in the relaxing measures of Phase 1, which started May 9. In this Friday’s statement, Sisolak set a target date of June 4 for the reopening of the gaming industry in the state. Results of the Gaming Control Board will also be considered on Tuesday’s conference.

Silver State’s Lockdown Gives Positive Results

Since the lockdown orders in March, there have been 7,400 reported cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nevada. Deaths so far are just above 380 patients. Last year alone, some 42.5 million people visited the Silver State. Looking at results for the last 3 years, excessive of 120 million people were interested in Nevada. With casino closures since March, this year’s numbers will doubtfully reach the results from 2019. On the other hand, the closing of casinos in the state greatly helped with the reducing of the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread.

Looking at the total cases and deaths, Nevada is actually near the bottom of the list of states affected by the virus. This only proves that Sisolak’s actions were well-planned and successfully executed. Earlier this month, the Gaming Commission released guidelines for the reopening of casinos in the Silver State. Some 400 casinos are expected to be affected by the guidelines. The guidelines mainly change the occupancy of each casino to be reduced in half. Exact calculations for each venue will be based on the each building’s fire codes. In addition, testing of employees will be conducted, PPE is a must and frequent disinfection needs to be conducted in high traffic areas. We are yet to see if updated guidelines or federal guidelines will be released upon commencing of Phase 2 of business reopening in Nevada.

Governor Steve Sisolak Comments on The Matter

Participating in a webinar yesterday with more than 1,000 people, Gov. Sisolak commented on the subject: “It’s important that when visitors come here, when they start coming back to Las Vegas, to Nevada, they know that this is the safest place in the world to come on vacation.” He continued by saying: “And to make sure that there is a tracing effort in place, there’s testing in place, that they feel that they’ll be able to come here, enjoy themselves and not take the virus back home.” Sisolak did not miss to say thank you to all of the Nevadans who helped in this time of crisis and assisted in reducing the spread of the virus in the Silver State.

Another topic of discussion in the webinar was the state’s economy. Sisolak noted: “We can bring back the economy, but we can’t bring back the lives.” According to the governor, the pandemic has implemented the need for budget cuts. In his opinion, budget cuts can greatly help the recovery of the Silver State. Based on what is seen so far, the situation with the gaming industry in Nevada is yet to unravel, following Tuesday’s planned press conference.

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