{"id":28831,"date":"2020-11-23T09:09:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T17:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28831"},"modified":"2020-12-01T07:41:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T15:41:17","slug":"new-rules-green-shoots-on-the-strip-mixed-messages-in-michigann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-rules-green-shoots-on-the-strip-mixed-messages-in-michigann\/","title":{"rendered":"New rules, green shoots on the Strip; Mixed messages in Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" Casinos in Nevada<\/strong> will take a gut punch tomorrow when new state restrictions go into effect. They’ll have to reduce players on the floor to 25% of capacity, and the same holds true<\/a> for bars and restaurants. Citing “wildfire” levels of Coronavirus<\/strong> in the Silver State, Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong> (D) also rolled back meeting levels from 250 people to 50. We don’t know how live entertainment will be affected but Nothing Good seems to be in order. In addition to restrictions already in place on gaming tables and such, dining parties will be constrained to four apiece. The edict will remain in place for three weeks. “As of Friday, November 20, Nevada logged 129,714 cases, an increase of 1,839 new cases since last Thursday. Cases statewide continue to grow at 1,854 new cases per day over the seven days before November 20. The test positivity rate over the last 14 days since November 20 is 15.8 percent,” reported Susan Stapleton<\/strong>. If that doesn’t alarm you, it should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This setback comes as a green shoot or two was cropping up on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. Room rates for the week of Dec. 13-19 are off only 3% to $100\/night. Midweek rates have fallen only 8% and weekend ones up are up 11%. Mind you, mid-December is a slow time for Vegas but we’ll take such good news as we can get. Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> led the pack, jumping 34% midweek and 67% on weekends. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, perhaps due to its glut of inventory, lagged the pack with -4% and -7%, respectively, while MGM Resorts International<\/strong> was flat on weekdays and up 10% on weekends. Wynncore <\/strong>spiraled down -54% midweek and underperformed (-4%) on weekends. Placing a vote of confidence in the Strip, Donny Osmond<\/strong> is returning, next August. Presale begins tomorrow (code: CRDONNY) at 7 a.m. Eastern time. Osmond will be planting his flag at Harrah’s Las Vegas<\/strong>, which could use a bonafide headliner and, as he’s one of the hardest-working men in showbiz, Sin City is fortunate to have him back. Well done, Caesars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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If you think Covid-19 is bad in Nevada, take Michigan<\/strong> out for a spin. Wolverine State citizens are headed toward a death rate of 1,000 a week<\/a> and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer <\/strong>(D) said, \u201cWe are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date. The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action because as the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors, the virus will spread, more people will get sick, and there will be more fatalities.\u201d Thus, even though they’ve been operating at only 15% of capacity, Detroit<\/strong> casinos are closed for a three-week period ending Dec. 8. (Tribal casinos are mostly staying open, burying their heads in the sand.) They are expected to miss out on $67 million in revenue during Great Shutdown II. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although FanDuel<\/strong> and DraftKings<\/strong> are seeding Michigan with promotional offers to join, neither sports betting nor Internet gambling will get out of the blocks while casinos are temporarily defunct. In Pennsylvania<\/strong>, where Rivers Philadelphia<\/strong> is temporarily shuttered, state officials are weighing even broader measures. \u201cWe may be tired of Covid, but Covid\u2019s not tired of us,\u201d Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Farley<\/strong>\u00a0said to an analyst. This uncertain situation casts a pall over the planned early 2021 opening of Live Hotel & Casino Philadelphia<\/strong>. In addition to operating at 25% capacity, New York State<\/strong> casinos have seen Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (D) impose a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cripple Creek<\/strong> casinos dodged a bullet when they received a temporary exemption from an anti-Covid shutdown. Compared to high prevalence rates elsewhere in Colorado<\/strong> (only 395 cases, four of them fatal), Cripple Creek was deemed to doing an exemplary job of curtailing Trump Flu. Casinos in Black Hawk<\/strong> and Central City<\/strong> were not so fortunate and had to go dark. In New Mexico<\/strong>, the Navajo Nation<\/strong> is showing the right order of priorities by keeping its casinos shuttered. As tribal President Jonathan Nez<\/strong> admirably put it, \u201cWe cannot put a price tag on the health, safety and lives of our Navajo people. Revenues do not outweigh the precious lives of our elders, children and gaming employees.\u201d Carve those words in stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/strong>: Fickle FanDuel is transferring its loyalty in Illinois<\/strong> from Par-A-Dice<\/strong> to Fairmount Park Racetrack<\/strong>. No word on how this might strain Boyd Gaming<\/strong>\/FanDuel relations … Good news for Macao<\/strong> operators. The government can’t get its act together to review concession renewals by June 2022, so another extension appears in order. Gather ye rosebuds while yet ye may … Pennsylvania’s first satellite casino, Live Casino Pittsburgh<\/strong>, has opened. The news comes at a time when Keystone State casinos are suffering from saturation … Caesars Entertainment may wriggle out<\/a> of a whistleblower lawsuit involving Harrah’s Southern California<\/strong> by moving it to federal court. Former general manager Darrell Pilant<\/strong> was forced out of Harrah’s rather than expose employees to Covid-19 at a time when most other Golden State casinos were still closed … The Danville<\/strong> casino in Illinois has scored a branding coup: It will be part of the Golden Nugget<\/strong> chain. That is, if it’s approved. The applications is being submitted this week … The Klamath Tribes<\/strong> in Oregon<\/strong> are imposing a fortnight-long “freeze” on operations. It’s another attempt to stem Covid-19’s spread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casinos in Nevada will take a gut punch tomorrow when new state restrictions go into effect. They’ll have to reduce players on the floor to 25% of capacity, and the same holds true for bars and restaurants. Citing “wildfire” levels … 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":[60,244,34,27,70,44,277,4,278,287,283,58,37,241,62,245,259,207,253,101,211,95,243,9,20,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28831"}],"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=28831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28859,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28831\/revisions\/28859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}