From our correspondent in the United States,
One hundred and twenty-eight dollars a night at the Cosmopolitan, 55 dollars at Treasure Island, 45 dollars at the MGM Grand… Three months ago, Las Vegas would have been taken by storm with these broken prices. But the coronavirus has been there, and while hotels hope to reopen in late May or early June - the date must be announced at any time by the Governor of Nevada - casinos are trying to reassure potential customers. On the program: physical distance, reduced capacities and massive disinfection of surfaces and tokens. But the main hotel union denounces a “lack of transparency” and refuses that the employees “serve as guinea pigs”. With, in the background, the specter of an unprecedented economic crisis, in a State which lives mainly from tourism.
Las Vegas has been shutdown since March 17. The entire strip awaits the governor's green light, with a reopening planned for phase 2 of the deconfinement. The hotels were hoping to welcome guests this weekend for Memorial Day, which traditionally marks the start of the summer season, barbecues and pool parties - last year more than 300,000 visitors landed in Vegas over three days. But unless there is a twist, they will probably have to wait another week or two.
Cards destroyed and tokens disinfected
If Governor Sisolak decides the date, health and logistics details are already decided by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This regulator has published a roadmap of minimum measures that casinos will have to respect. Initially, they will have to operate at half their capacity, to enforce physical distance, if necessary by removing seats from certain slot machines. Surfaces should be disinfected regularly, some after each game. The blackjack tables will be limited to three people, those of poker to four, against nine at most in normal times. Plexiglass should protect the croupiers, as in the casinos of Arizona, which have just reopened.
Each hotel group must submit a detailed plan for validation. Some, like Wynn Resorts, have chosen to make it public, but it's not an obligation. Chips passed "in a commercial high-temperature dishwasher" or "UV", cleaned after each throw, baccarat cards "destroyed" after each game or "every four hours" for poker ... In 23 pages, the word "disinfection" appears 165 times. And there are also dozens of areas in hotels and restaurants: elevator buttons, doorknobs, flushes, bank terminals and other ATMs. In the desert, the hydroalcoholic gel will flow freely.
"Employees refuse to be guinea pigs"
As in Hollywood, unions have considerable weight in Las Vegas. The most powerful, the Culinary Workers Union, has 60,000 members. And anger rumbles. “The idea that each group develops its own procedures and is not obliged to make them public, while hoping that no bad actor endangers workers, we have all the ingredients for a potential disaster. The employees refuse to be guinea pigs, it is a matter of life and death, ”insists a representative of the organization.
Since the start of the pandemic, 15 members have died from the coronavirus. The union claims that "Governor Sisolak imposes health protocols on the entire area immediately". And above all, let Nevada give itself the means to enforce them, with regular checks from the authorities.
Tourism-dependence
If the coronavirus plunged the entire planet into a brutal recession, the impact is increased tenfold in Nevada. In 2018, the tourism sector (mainly casinos, hotels and restaurants) represented one in three jobs and 23% of the state's GDP. It is between three and four times more than in California.
David Henkes, analyst of the restaurant sector at Technomic, expects a collapse in casino revenues which could reach between 35 and 50% for the year 2020. "In Las Vegas, it's not just tourism leisure but also business trips ”with 24,000 annual conventions, he underlines. According to him, "a return to pre-Covid levels could take several years. "
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- Deconfinement
- Casino
- Covid 19
- Las Vegas
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