Nevada casinos to reopen; Ruffin stiffs workforce

Pending a decline in Coronavirus cases over this past weekend, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) is expected to announce a reopening of Silver State casinos, effective June 4, which should give them time to get their paperwork filed with the Nevada Gaming Control Board. It’s unclear why Sisolak moved casinos up to Phase Two of his resumption plan but we can’t say it’s a bad idea. The industry seems more than ready. Among those is Caesars Entertainment, which plans to open two casinos on a trial basis. One, we always knew, would be Caesars Palace. As for the other, if you had the Flamingo in your office pool, collect your winnings. (Harrah’s Las Vegas—our pick—and The Linq‘s casino will be next.) As for the Sisolak plan, it’s a bit of a gamble. “Las Vegas can never be known as the place where people go and get sick,” says Robert Lang, executive director of Brookings Mountain West at UNLV. Thusly, get used to no valet parking, masked dealers and disinfected dice.

“We all know what we’ve gone through for the last 10 weeks. No one’s having fun,” MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle complained to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The simple idea that I could get out, come to a resort, lay at a pool, enjoy a nice dinner, sit at a blackjack table. There’s something to be said for all of that.” Hornbuckle can also cross Cirque du Soleil of off his list of things to do: The fey French-Canadian shows are remaining dark for the nonce. Hornbuckle has, however, pulled slot machines in favor of hand-washing stations. Of Bellagio‘s 4,000 hotel rooms, only 1,200 will be let. Wynncore is opening five restaurants—SW Steakhouse, Allegro, Jardin, Lakeside and Mizumi—June 1. Caesars is still bent upon reopening its white elephant, the Las Vegas High Roller. Good luck maintaining social distancing in one of its gondolas.

Lang predicts the recovery curve will start with locals, followed by drive-in Californians (nobody, it seems to want to fly until there’s a vaccine), then domestic travelers and finally international tourists. Speaking of fly-in travelers, Boyd Gaming still appears inclined to keep its three
Downtown casinos closed, at least until demand from Hawaii beings to manifest. Hotel rates on the Las Vegas Strip appear to be bottoming out (or peaking, if you’re paying them). They’re -32% for the week of June 14. Business travel looks stronger than leisure, with midweek rates -26% but weekend ones -41% (for a blended rate of $129/night). MGM Grand has begun taking bookings (Aha!), with MGM rates -37% on weekdays and -39% weekends. Caesars Entertainment has improved dramatically midweek (-19%) although not on weekends (-43%), while weekday travelers are avoiding Wynncore (-40%) and weekends are weak (-36%). As for Venelazzo, it’s looking strong with a -20%/-30% weekday/weekend split. By the way, Caesars has temporarily waived self-parking fees. Huzzah! Let’s hope the change becomes permanent, as economic imperatives would seem to dictate.

The Scrooge McDuck of the Vegas shutdown turns out to be Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin whose employees “were not offered any kind of relief.” Even Sahara owner Alex Meruelo put together packages of free food for terminated workers. Culinary Union spokeswoman Bethany Khan minced few words: “Many gaming corporations are owned by straight-up billionaires, like Phil Ruffin at Treasure Island [$3.1 billion], Alex Meruelo at the Sahara, and David Siegel at Westgate. Those are three billionaires who are not paying their workers anything during closure and have left them to figure out food banks and fend for themselves. It’s shameful that they abandoned their workers during a global crisis.”

In a bit of history the Silver State would rather not have made, it set an all-time record for unemployment, topping 28%. Employment fell 244,800 in April. That percentage leads the nation, by the way, and painfully illustrates the dangers of premising a state’s economy solely on tourism. With casinos reopening, that number will recede but slowly rather than dramatically. (How many maids do you need when your hotel is operating with only 30% of its rooms?) “Together, these numbers show about 573,000 Nevadans affected by the COVID-19 shutdown,” said Nevada Chief Economist David Schmidt. “We may go another month at levels comparable to this but then as more reopening starts to happen, we would expect to see people returning to work and no longer being unemployed and reengaged with the labor force and see those numbers fall.”

Admitted Sisolak, “Nevada is facing record high unemployment and the sheer numbers are difficult to comprehend,” adding, “Nevada is working diligently to get people back to work as fast as possible, in a safe and responsible manner.”  The last time Silver State employment levels were this low was in 2013 and initial claims are six times what they were in December 2008, when the Great Recession hit.

And if you think casino employees are chafing to get back to work, think again. “We are not an experiment,” bristled The Rio‘s Angelica Garcia. “Most of our union members are women and minorities and we’re going to be used as guinea pigs. I don’t want to go back and risk myself and my family getting sick just for money.” Add Treasure Island’s Yolanda Scott, “We deal with a lot of tourists. In my opinion, we need to be the last place to open.” As Sisolak said, “The lives of Nevadans are more important than profit.” Are you listening, Phil?

* While Americans may harken to Las Vegas’ siren song in the near future, that doesn’t necessarily bode well for airlines. The so-called “Covid camper” is now all the rage.