Regional casinos outpace Las Vegas

Some good news for Las Vegas: It has emerged as the frontrunner for NHL playoff games after hockey-league Commissioner Gary Bettman nixed Columbus. Two Canadian cities are also in the running still. It’s not an either-or proposition. One city will host Eastern Conference playoffs (paging Toronto) and one the Western Conference. Of the two, one will get the Stanley Cup “Final Four.” Put your money on Sin City.

Hey, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), mixed message much? The guv dined out with fellow politicians at Bella Vita restaurant in Henderson and it looks like the “beautiful life” went to his head. Now we know if you have take your mask off in order to eat but is an impromptu photo op really all that important? It’s a bad signal to send at a time when the state is cracking down on gamblers who are flouting mask-wearing regulations.

Add Wolfgang Puck Players Locker and Beauty & Essex to the list of restaurants that have temporarily closed after employees tested positive for Covid-19. That makes five restaurants that are down for the count. Given the two-week incubation period of the disease, chances are good [sic] that workers contracted it on the job which, if true, would indicate a much more widespread problem. As for those youngsters who think they’re immortal or at least buy into the old wives’ tale that Coronavirus is nothing worse than the common flu, they should beware of catching the disease and becoming “long-haulers.” According to The Atlantic, they can expect to experience “relentless and rolling waves of symptoms that make it hard to concentrate, exercise, or perform simple physical tasks. Most are young. Most were previously fit and healthy.”

Adds the Boston Globe, “Young people have experienced extreme and chronic fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, tremors, headaches, difficulty concentrating, and short-term memory loss. Experts worry about … lung scarring, heart damage, and neurological and mental health effects.” As The Atlantic puts it, “The notion that most cases are mild and brief bolsters the belief that only the sick and elderly need isolate themselves, and that everyone else can get infected and be done with it.” Sounds like your prototypical Vegas casino patron. The only thing that’s scarier than Covid-19 is the willful ignorance of those who believe themselves impervious. Says a malaria survivor, the disease “has been like nothing else on Earth.”

By the way, two employees at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas have tested positive for Coronavirus. See what happens when you try to pretend it’s gone away, Cosmo brass?

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