Las Vegas mayor wants the city to reopen, but gaming industry workers, casino executives, and Nevada's government thinks it is not the right time to do so. It is because it is unlikely that gamblers will be flying to Las Vegas and setting foot inside casinos anytime soon.
The mayor's take
In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on April 22, Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman repeatedly called for business to return to normal. She said that she would love everything to open because the country had viruses for years but it never resorted to lockdowns.
Mayor Goodman also criticized Cooper for showing a graph from Chinese researchers that showed how easily the virus can be spread in public. Goodman acknowledged she does not have the authority to reopen casinos or other businesses in the city as that needs to be done by Nevada's governor Steve Sisolak. But Governor Sisolak has a different point of view from the mayor.
Sisolak also had an interview with Cooper and he said that Nevada is not ready to reopen and that he will not use the state as a control group for the rest of the country. The Nevada Gaming Control Board issued strict guidelines detailing the steps that casinos will need to take before reopening.
Geoconda Arguello-Kline, the secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, said in a statement that Mayor Goodman's statements were outrageous considering essential frontline workers have been dealing with the consequences of the pandemic firsthand. She added that health and safety is their priority, workers, and guests have to be safe.
Gaming firms are struggling
Due to the shutdown in Las Vegas, casino stocks have been hit hard. The shares of Caesars Entertainment have plunged 40% this year while Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts have plummeted 45% and 60% respectively. Las Vegas Sands' shares are down to 35% in 2020.
Las Vegas Sands is a company that also has casinos in Macau, and they were the first of the major gaming firms to report results for the first quarter. The other major US casino companies will also discuss what is happening in Las Vegas when they report their latest earnings in the next few weeks.
During a conference call with analysts, Las Vegas Sands president and COO Robert Glen Goldstein stated that he was optimistic that gamblers would flock back to Macao once casinos reopen there but he was less enthusiastic about the possibility of a quick rebound in Nevada.
Goldstein stated that there are significant questions about when people will be willing to fly to Las Vegas and whether consumers will want to take vacations any time soon given how badly the economy has been hurt by the pandemic. There is also an issue of whether Americans will continue to follow social distancing guidelines once the casinos are reopened in Las Vegas.
In Asia, health and safety measures were already practiced before the COVID-19 outbreak. However, Goldstein said that it is not clear how comfortable Americans will be about needing to have their temperature checked and wearing masks and gloves before entering a casino or other establishments.
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