A cautionary tale

Las Vegas, be warned: This could be you. We’re referring to the chaos in Miami, where an 8 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew has been imposed by police in response to widespread hooliganism. The out-of-control situation in the streets was brought on by Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ open-for-business, head-in-the-sand attitude toward Coronavirus. There are no capacity limits, no masking mandates and a general elimination of restrictions meant to protect the public health. The result was thousands of overeager party animals descending upon Miami to, as City Manager Raul Aguila put it, “engage in lawlessness and an anything-goes party attitude.” Add Mayor Dan Gelber (D), “there are very few places that have been open as our state have been open. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. The virus is still very present in our community. We have 1,000 infections a day on most days.” That will fall on deaf ears in the governor’s mansion, where a Luddite, anti-science attitude holds sway.

Consequently, you have what The Associated Press describes as an “unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property, and refusing to wear masks.” Five combined police forces and even SWAT teams have been all but powerless to control the rabble. DeSantis probably thinks the mob is good for business but Aguila responds that they’re not patronizing local businesses or restaurants, merely crowding the streets … twerking and ‘making it rain.’ Streets have been blocked by rioters, shots fired and at least one restaurant destroyed outright. As for the law-enforcement response, tourist Heather Price moped “I just feel like it’s really not fair. People paid a lot of money to come all the way out here, just to not be able to do the activities they wanted to.”

Yes, it’s not America anymore when you can’t get drunk on the beach, right? (Alcohol sales have been belatedly nixed.) And Gelber might want to rethink those $5 million he dropped on a nationwide marketing campaign for Miami, which seems to have drawn exactly the wrong kind of tourist crowd. Questioned about the curfew, which may extend into next month, Police Chief Richard Clements replied, “How many more things are we going to allow to occur before we step in?” He added, “We couldn’t go on any longer. I think this was the right decision.” Las Vegas needs to take careful heed of the disorder in South Beach as it (Sin City) reopens. It could happen here.

“A dollar spent in Macao is more valuable to us than a dollar spent in Las Vegas in terms of return on investment.” So Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein told Wall Street analysts with unusual bluntness, explaining the sale of Venelazzo. Besides, it was essentially free money, as an excellent analysis points out. Then there’s the small matter of staying in good odor with China, what with concession renewals coming up for renewal in 2020. The late Sheldon Adelson seems to have been closely (and erroneously) tied to stringent U.S. policies toward Red China and an Asia-centric focus is argued to help next year with the renewal. But we think Goldstein said it all.

This won’t help Doral Resort‘s case for a casino license: Mar-a-Lago has been “partially closed” thanks to a Covid-19 outbreak brought on by the club’s casual attitude toward masking and other safety protocols. Even before Trump Flu struck it, Mar-a-Lago was giving us an idea of what to expect from Doral: Sparse groups of oldsters masticating soft food. Hardly a solid constituency for high-end casino gambling. At least The Associated Press gives us a preview of the headliners that would grace a casino-ized Doral: Mike Love, Vanilla Ice and Taylor Dayne. Yup, the A-list.