Re-Opening of Las Vegas Casinos Could Be Announced on Tuesday, May 26th

Published on May 23rd, 2020 10:48 am EST

It's a big weekend for Las Vegas area casinos.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has said that if there isn't a spike of COVID-19 cases over the Memorial Day weekend, Phase 2 of the state's re-opening plan will be given the green light.

Governor Sisolak has said that he will have a press conference on Tuesday, May 26th to announce whether or not the state will push forward with Phase 2 of their re-opening.

Governor Sisolak has targeted June 4th as the day that Las Vegas casinos would be able to re-open their doors, contingent on the state avoiding a surge in Coronavirus cases over the holiday weekend.

In co-ordination with Governor Sisolak's expected re-opening announcement, the Nevada Gaming Control Board will also be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the next steps in regards to the state's casinos re-opening to the public.

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All non-essential businesses were closed by the Governor on March 17th. This included all of the casinos, restaurants, gyms, etc.

This was obviously devastating to the state of Nevada, which is heavily dependent on tourism and gaming.

Shares of publicly traded casinos were obviously devastated by the news as well, with some falling as much as 80% before starting to recover.

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Casinos will not all be re-opening at the same time, even after the Governor gives the thumbs-up to continue business.

MGM Resorts, for instance, has announced plans to re-open three of their casinos to start, including the Bellagio and New York-New York.

Caesars Entertainment has said that Caesars Palace and the Flamingo Las Vegas will re-open their doors first.

Boyd Gaming, for its part, has said that properties such as the Orleans and Gold Coast will likely open first.

Casinos face a massive task in re-opening, as they need to bring staff back, implement social distancing guidelines for their customers, change the configurations of their tables, establish new cleaning guidelines, etc. This will not be an overnight thing, and this is part of the reason why all of the casinos won't suddenly be re-opening their doors.

In addition, these casinos will have lower customer numbers to contend with, as many people simply can't/won't travel to Las Vegas at this time.

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The re-opening of Las Vegas obviously has people hopeful for the World Series of Poker, which is scheduled to take place this fall.

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Filed Under: Poker Legal Issues