It’s still not a done deal but what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) calls “emergency relief” emerged from the Senate yesterday. A few jerks tried to hold it up with the preposterous argument that “the expanded 
unemployment benefits were overly generous and would encourage workers to get laid off.” They were beaten back and the unemployed got their due. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) complained that the final bill didn’t go far enough, but the perfect will always be the enemy of the good. Or as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) wrote to his colleagues, “Like all compromises, this bill is far from perfect. But we believe the legislation has improved sufficiently to warrant its quick consideration and passage.”
Among the areas prioritized for relief are “businesses that have been forced to make huge job cuts in recent weeks,” which certainly applies to the casino industry. American Gaming Association President Bill Miller greeted the passage of the bill by noting that there are still 19 operational 
casinos in the U.S. (That many?) and by shifting the AGA’s emphasis to those who have truly been hard-hit by the crisis, the casino workforce. “The Senate passed the CARES Act today with financial resources and tax provisions that will help preserve the gaming industry’s ability to continue to serve as a valuable job creator and community partner,” he added, sounding like a man who got what he wanted. Elsewhere in the industry, Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox says he’s been taking stock in lieu of a salary, adding “We should be able to borrow money to pay salaries and wages of our line-level staff and healthcare benefits. And then, once we’re reopened and out of this, we should pay it back.”
Thank God the casino industry is being run by people like Maddox and not cretins like Jeff Bezos, whose solution to unemployment at Whole Foods is to tell workers to donate their vacation days to their less-fortunate fellows. Small wonder that Stephen Colbert likens Bezos to Lex Luthor. Bezos is a contributor to a problem that manifested itself today in the disclosure of 3.3 million new unemployment claims—a goodly chunk of them from the resort industry—being filed last week, the worst such stat since 1982.
“While it’s an historic number, it probably understates the number of people who went into unemployment last week,” MIT‘s Sloan School of Management professor Thomas Kochan said. Referring to the stimulus package, National Employment Law Project policy analyst Michele Evermore reported, “Tipped workers will still find it challenging to get an accurate base benefit, but the extra $600 per week will help a lot.” And Las Vegas is, if nothing, a tipocracy. (The Economic Policy Institute projects an eventual 14 million jobless nationwide.)
Delivery and online-based businesses (like Amazon) are actually adding jobs, and not just a few here and there. Trouble is, there’s not that much gambling in the U.S. that can be delivered online, so the industry’s hands are fairly tied.
But we digress. We’re not a virologist (and don’t play one on TV) but what are some of the better-case scenarios for turning the corner on this pandemic? Nobel laureate Michael Levitt argues that the trajectory of Coronavirus will be steep but brief and says “we’re going to be fine” (give or take a few thousand deaths, like China). Leavitt was correct in his forecasts of the Chinese caseload and death toll, and sees the situation in Italy getting worse and South Korea improving. (NB: The latter was quicker to test than we were. Even Levitt concedes that testing has been ‘spotty.’) He also blames the news media for creating a Covid-19 panic and says that we “need to think of corona like a severe flu. It is four to eight times as strong as a common flu, and yet, most people will remain healthy and humanity will survive.” Yes, albeit after unwelcome amounts of shallow breathing, diarrhea and dizziness.
(Emergency physician Esther Choo told CNN the media has been, if anything, too discreet: “This whole thing has been hampered by its abstractness. I mean, half the interviews on TV that I’ve seen are totally well people pissed they didn’t get tested. The truth is, the sickest patients are terrifying. They are air hungry, dropping their oxygen, confused, distressed. We can never show that. But it is terrifying.”)
Saying, “This is not the time to go out drinking with your buddies,” Leavitt cautions that a vaccine is still months away. “People need to be considered heroes for announcing they have this virus,” he added, while saying that a prolonged health clampdown could be counterproductive because it could lead to a spike in suicides among the unemployed. Dr. Loren Miller, a virologist at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center counters, “In China they nipped it in the bud in the nick of time. In the U.S. we might have, or we might not have. We just don’t know.”
Or do we? Dr. Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University contends that Covid-19 has been around a month longer than generally acknowledged. A proponent on ‘herd immunity,’ Gupta’s argument, as summarized by DailyWire.com, is that “fewer than one in a thousand who’ve been infected with COVID-19 become sick enough to need hospitalization, leaving the vast majority with mild cases or free of symptoms.” Added the Financial Times, “If the findings are confirmed by testing, then the current restrictions could be removed much sooner than ministers have indicated.” Gupta cautions that it’s still relatively early days and more testing is needed. Either way, we’re no closer to knowing when we can starting going …
Back to casinos …
The AGA estimates the negative impact of an eight-week casino closure (remember, we’re only entering Week Two) at $21.3 billion, with 96% of 
the workforce idled, with multibillion-dollar ramifications for employee salaries and state tax collections. Of course, there are going to be a lot of leisure-oriented companies lining up for federal loans, so how many bowls of gruel the casino industry gets remains very much to be seen. As Donald Trump put it, “We spent more time thinking about the small businesses than the big.”
Our leaders, however, do not seem to be taking the pandemic seriously. This is despite 869 domestic deaths and 62,086 confirmed cases, second only to Italy. Worldwide, we’re talking about 458,927 cases and 20,807 deaths, plus 113,687 recoveries. Meanwhile, some in the federal government are still trying to rebrand Covid-19 as the “Wuhan virus.” Why don’t they just show their true colors and call it “the yellow peril”?
* Terry Caudill posted photos of deep cleanings at the Four Queens and Binion’s Gambling Hall, with the message, “We are working on getting the property extra shiny to welcome you back!!” Unfortunately, one of the photos was less than reassuring, as it showed a worker in a hazmat suit … although one could say that was an honest description of the gravity of the status quo.
* Nightclub workers are generally faring about as well as the rank and file 
when it comes to layoffs. True, all of The Cromwell‘s day- and nightlife staff has been furloughed. But Hakkasan is paying 1,600 laid-off employees through March (the company controls seven venues). As for Tao Group, “we are establishing a Tao Group Hospitality Relief Fund that will assist our employees who might face a range of personal hardships in the coming weeks and months. We want them to be safe and remain connected to us and one another.” XS Nightclub and Encore Beach Club staffers are being paid through April 16, when Wynncore theoretically reopens.
Jottings: Construction at Galaxy Macau is on hold and not because of Coronavirus. A scaffolding fell, killing three workers and trapping seven … The recent cancellation of the National Association of Broadcasters show will cost Las Vegas $153 million in revenue alone … The Golden Nugget 
chain and Landry’s restaurant empire have furloughed 40,000 workers, according to owner Tilman Fertitta, who called the recession early … Chalk up a second celebrity casualty of Covid-19: celebrity chef Floyd Cardoz, a former Top Chef Masters contestant … McCarran International International has gone 100% smoke-free. You can thank them at @LASairport and urge them to make it an ongoing policy … Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has extended school closures through May 4, which may not be a good harbinger for resumption of Encore Boston Harbor business … That’s enough bad news for today.
