{"id":27823,"date":"2020-08-25T07:39:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T15:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27823"},"modified":"2020-08-27T07:38:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:38:21","slug":"fear-and-loathing-at-the-cosmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/fear-and-loathing-at-the-cosmo\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear and loathing at the Cosmo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Once again The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong> is being portrayed as the bad boy of Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> resorts when it comes to taking Covid-19<\/strong> seriously. A headline in today’s Daily Beast reads, “Maskless gamblers. Verbal abuse. Infected colleagues. Workers at the Cosmopolitan say they’re scared to do their jobs\u2014and their bosses aren’t doing enough to protect them.” Previously, the Los Angeles Times<\/em> paid the Cosmo a visit and discovered a similar, if not quite so dire, scenario. Is Cosmo management really as derelict as media coverage would have us believe<\/a>? Some of the players are certainly pigs, such as the ones who called pit boss ‘Lindsey’ such endearments as “little white cunt” and “stupid fucking bitch” when she asked them to don face masks, as Nevada<\/strong> regulations require. She told The Daily Beast<\/em>, \u201cI\u2019ve heard players saying that they like Cosmo better since we opened, because we have the fewest rules.\u201d (Perhaps the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> should take an interest.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Cosmo has even gained a nickname: “The Wuhan<\/strong> of the Strip.” Although the Cosmo’s 70 reportedly infected workers pales next to Wynncore<\/strong>‘s 300, inside sources (who all spoke to The Daily Beast<\/em> anonymously out of fear of retaliation) said they were being allowed to return almost immediately to work if they were asymptomatic. Said the pit boss, \u201cI\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m terrified of getting it and bringing it home and seeing my family.\u201d Why? “So much anxiety about everything, and it\u2019s so much worse on the weekends, when we\u2019re packed well beyond the 50 percent capacity to which we\u2019re supposed to be adhering.\u201d Evidently Cosmo ownership doesn’t think a few sacrifices on the altar of Mammon is a bad thing. The State of Nevada bears some of the blame. As Coronavirus<\/strong> cases spiral upward, Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong> (D) hesitates\u2014dare we say fatally?\u2014to move against the all-powerful casinos. They got him elected, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Beast<\/em>, the Cosmo hasn’t even installed plexiglas barriers (the industry standard) on all its table games. Patrons are not only being allowed to touch cards, Cosmo reportedly isn’t sanitizing the decks. Chips? “Maybe once a week.” All slot machines are kept on. Temperature checks aren’t being conducted, so we’re told, and only recently has the Cosmo cracked down on (some) unmasked players. Admittedly, people who don’t take responsibility for themselves, walk around inebriated and can’t be bothered to wear face masks is an especially made-in-Las Vegas<\/strong> problem, but the question is whether the Cosmo is doing its part to curb such pestilential behavior and the early answer seems to be ‘no.’ Considering the number of viral videos of virus-friendly activity at the Cosmo, we’re hard-pressed to give the place the benefit of the doubt. No other Strip resort has attracted so much opprobrium since reopening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poker pro Jeff Hwang<\/strong>, however, says \u201cI wouldn\u2019t describe Cosmo as being particularly unique as far as those types of safety measures.\u201d Or lack thereof, presumably. \u201cThere is no attempt being made at crowd control enforcement at casinos. There is no defense against a mass influx of untested population of visitors from Covid hotspots concentrated on a four-mile Strip.\u201d And don’t even get us started on all the smoking! To its credit, the Cosmo is belatedly taking action to prevent crowding around table games but is it too little, too late? \u201cEven the [University Medical Center of Southern Nevada<\/strong>] nurses giving us tests have said Cosmo is the worst,\u201d said one of the Beast<\/em>‘s sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Per an internal memo, “all employees must wear a mask, work outside the pit as much as possible, and must not ‘congregate or be within six feet of another [employee] when your area is dead.’ In the pit, supervisors are not allowed to ‘stand side by side with another’ staffer, and ‘must not walk to\/from break’ with a colleague.” But for customers\u2014said to be “a little rough”\u2014it’s evidently quite a different set of rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High rollers stand accused of getting a special amount of slack and the Cosmo’s narrow, constricted casino floor has been said to be holding as many as 1,000 players at a time. An worker says that, after seeing a dealer abused by a player, \u201cI knew right then Cosmo was full of shit about protecting employees.\u201d We could go on and on … but it’s too depressing. It’s like some kind of Hunter S. Thompson<\/strong> dystopian view of the Apocalypse. People are dying and no one cares. Party on! \u201cWe went from being a place of class and prestige to a place of wild, drunken, rowdy partygoers,\u201d remarks an employee. \u201cIn their minds, COVID doesn\u2019t exist once they arrive in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosmo workers look enviously at Wynncore (\u201camazing at keeping employees safe\u201d) and Venelazzo<\/strong>, regularly cited as the gold standard of Coronavirus vigilance. Even Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> has come to the table with Culinary Union<\/strong>, which had been suing it for a lack of probity at some of its restaurants. In a lengthy statement, the Cosmo said it’s provided \u201cfree testing, temperature checks and paid time off for employees,\u201d adding “Over the past several months, we have implemented an extensive set of health and safety policies and procedures, all of which meet or exceed the directives and guidance taken from local health and government authorities, including those called for within Senate Bill 4<\/strong>,\u201d the Adolfo Fernandez Bill<\/em>, which mandates a lengthy set of worker protections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosmo management denied employees’ accusations, saying that \u201cAs we have continued to operate, we have added even more protections for the health and wellbeing of our team, including extended benefits, an onsite team of certified medical professionals, real-time communication channels, a 24\/7 accessible COVID-19 response team, dedicated Resort Ambassadors, enforcing our health and safety guidelines throughout the resort, the conversion of convention meeting space into expansive employee break and dining areas, and more. We continue to solicit feedback from employees and adjust and strengthen our protocols and extensive safety and security measures in real-time.\u201d There is some dispute, however, as to whether the amount of paid time off the Cosmo is providing is adequate to cover the 14-day quarantine period required by Coronavirus. Either way, the Cosmo is developing a serious image problem, albeit not with those reprobates who want to take Vegas riskiness to new levels. For them it’s Nirvana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of restaurant issues at Caesars, Searsucker<\/strong> has closed … again. The Caesars Palace<\/strong> eatery cited “the unforeseen business circumstances caused by the spread of COVID 19, the Governor of Nevada\u2019s declaration of emergency and resulting executive orders which have required Searsucker to operate at a reduced capacity, the recommendations and\/or orders regarding public gatherings issued by the CDC<\/strong> and various other government agencies and officials, and the resulting unforeseen economic impacts that the foregoing circumstances have caused to our business.\u201d In other words, it’s everybody’s fault<\/a> but Searsucker’s. The real bottom line is that 52 people are out of jobs\u2014at least until Hakkasan Group<\/strong> can reopen the restaurant (again), which it says it intends to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jot<\/strong>: We see that Vital Vegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong> got the low-down<\/a> on Virgin Hotel<\/strong> from President Richard Bosworth<\/strong> himself. Sahara<\/strong> owner Alex Meruelo<\/strong> may have it in for Roeben but movers and shakes like Bosworth and Derek Stevens<\/strong> are still happy to take his phone calls, glad to report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is being portrayed as the bad boy of Las Vegas Strip resorts when it comes to taking Covid-19 seriously. A headline in today’s Daily Beast reads, “Maskless gamblers. Verbal abuse. Infected colleagues. Workers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[235,244,66,151,155,18,283,241,33,25,9,263,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27827,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27823\/revisions\/27827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}