Sisolak vs. Goodman, Round Two; Wynn’s recovery plan

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), while acknowledging that his state’s unemployment-aid infrastructure is swamped (although initial jobless claims declined to 58,641 last week), is taking a steady-as-she-goes approach to reopening the Silver State, relying heavily on medical advice. “This is not going to be a political decision for as to when to open,” he said, refraining from giving a firm, back-to-business date. The state’s infection rate continues to ramp upward, with 3,088 cases and 137 deaths. Sisolak’s caution has brought him into open conflict with Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman (D), who prizes dollars over lives. “Those whom we’ve lost represent less than a half of 1 percent of our population, which has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique,” Goodman bloviated. “From my perspective, we must open our city, we must open Southern Nevada, and we must open the state of Nevada.”

Great. The first spike of Covid-19 hasn’t passed and Her Honor wants to flood Sin City with infected or at-risk people. What’s worse, Goodman is now spouting the meme that Coronavirus is nothing worse than the common flu. (As an at-risk person ourselves, we beg to differ.) We’ve not always been fans of Councilman Cedric Crear (D) but when he approves of the shutdown although his own business interests are hurting, we pay attention. “One death is just too many, and I think as we get more testing into the market, we’re going to realize there are more people who are infected,” remarked Crear. We agree. Added Sisolak, “I don’t know who she’s relying on for her experts, because none of my experts give me anything near that information. I rely on the experts I have.” By the way, thanks California for the loan of 50 state-owned ventilators for three weeks, cost-free.

Sisolak got a surprise endorsement from Donald Trump, who attempted to split the difference between governor and mayor. “They closed a big hotel down in Nevada that I have in Las Vegas. It’s a very severe step he took. I’m OK with it,” he said. “But you could call that one either way. I’m not involved with that. I could be if I wanted to,” he said. “I know the mayor is very upset with it. Some owners are very upset with it. Some of the developers out there are upset. Others say, ‘Hey, we have to get rid of [Coronavirus].’ I can see both sides of that.”

* Even with no available foresight as to when exactly Wynncore will reopen, Wynn Resorts is not just twiddling its thumbs. It has developed a 23-page healthy and safety program. Some of its salient points include: 1) guests will have to don masks upon entry; 2) every other slot machine and table game will be out of service; 3) visitors must maintain six feet of social distancing, especially at pools; 4) elevators will be rationed to four guests at a time; 5) thermal cameras will monitor visitors’ temperature as they enter; 6) sanitization of table-game rails every time a guest leaves a game, etc. (Covid-19 might be great cover for casinos to go smoke-free but I suppose that’s being too optimistic.) Bad news for high rollers: No more Baccarat Buffet! (Similar measures are being contemplated by the rest of the Big Four.) It looks you’ll have to get used to having your cards dealt by someone wearing gloves and a mask, at least for the time being.

It of course remains to be seen how well Wynncore will be able to enforce these new rules once the rubber meets the road but, as CEO Matt Maddox wrote, “The only way to cross this river is one stone at a time and we need to put our feet in the water before it is too late.” In an editorial in the Nevada Independent, Maddox also threw shade on Goodman, writing, “Some of our elected officials have questioned the [casino] closure, calling it ‘insanity.’ That opinion has no basis in data or science and should be ignored.”

“Our economy is in a free fall,” Maddox elaborated. “Nevada will likely be one of the hardest hit states in the nation and suffer very high unemployment. It is imperative to flatten this curve so we can re-emerge in a safe, sustainable way.” He added, “We all need to wear a mask.”

Looking on the bright(er) side, Maddox writes, “We passed our ‘peak’ hospitalizations based on most national models and our hospitals were not overrun. Our COVID-19 related deaths per million are below the national average. We have also acquired enough personal protective equipment through a public-private partnership to sufficiently supply our medical community … for months.” Although generally supportive of Sisolak, Maddox goes on to lay out his own program for bringing Nevada back on line. His lengthy set of nostrums includes A) an early May reopening—partial—of the Silver State economy, coupled with reduced occupancy—probably one-third—as well as the measures outlined above; B) increases in testing velocity, C) a mid- to late-May reopening of the Las Vegas Strip, “with extensive safety measures in place,” and D) pull back or advance that target, based on daily monitoring of disease data. Like Sisolak, Maddox acknowledges that there are a lot of moving parts, but it’s as sensible plan as we’ve seen. Would that people in Washington, D.C., were approaching the problem as thoughtfully.

* One casualty of Coronavirus has been big production shows. If Broadway is any barometer, they might not be back until September. That’s what Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin says of the Great White Way. But she holds out this reed of hope: “you’ve got some states like Arizona and Nevada that have very little coronavirus cases and they can probably open sooner than Los Angeles and San Francisco.” Indeed, Le Reve is already set to reopen, albeit just one show per day.

* There may be a recondite reason behind the Small Business Administration‘s denial of financial relief to most small casinos and gambling-dependent modest businesses (which led directly to the permanent closure of the Lakeside Inn & Casino in Lake Tahoe): politics. Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum has run the numbers on SBA grant-approvals and finds a disproportionate number of them targeted toward “red” states, which also tend to be ones that don’t lean heavily on gaming for their economy.

Jottings: Add Circa to the list of casino projects touched by Coronavirus. One worker has been diagnosed, although Circa proceeds as scheduled … Eight Florida citizens gathered regularly to play poker. All contracted Covid-19. Three have died, Casino.org reports. Still think we’re taking this too seriously? … Suppose you’re a dealer at Crown Melbourne and upload a “risqué homemade hip-hop track” to the casino’s official Facebook page and then are surprised to get grief for it? Harkirat “Harry King” Singh lost his job and just funked a lawsuit for unfair dismissal. Gee, we can’t imagine why … Two conventions are returning to Las Vegas: The Raving Loyalty Player Development Conference and the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference will both be at Bally’s Nov. 9-12. This new ‘date certain’ gives us additional hope for the Strip.