Fear of the spread of the deadly coronavirus is keeping people indoors as such; they are even canceling festivals, meetings, and sporting events. There are red alerts everywhere all across the world and the places where the significant count of people needs to gather, like malls, stadiums, or even casinos, are responding seriously on a case-by-case basis.
Since table games, slot machines, or sports betting kiosks are high-touch surfaces, and people have reduced their visits to those land and mortar casinos as coronavirus fear increases. WHO or the World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus spread as ‘pandemic,’ and that has contributed to creating more chaos globally. The virus can spread from person to person even though small droplets emanating from the mouth or nose of a person with COVID-19 when he coughs or exhales. When these droplets land on objects or surfaces, a mere touch on these surfaces may catch COVID-19 to others.
Most of the land casinos are closing down and many are transforming into online casinos to help gamblers wager online when they cannot step out safely. Casinos that form a major part of the global economy are thrashing and already crumbled. Though online wagering is serving as a good alternative for the gamblers, it cannot completely offset the economic damage that the global casino market is facing at this moment of crisis. But at the same time, it is at least providing a firebreak to the spread of the deadly virus by acting as a firewall for the gaming operators when customers are advised not to gather at a place. Let’s delve into what the world’s leading casinos are doing to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
Pennsylvania casino
A leading casino in Pennsylvania named the Valley Forge Casino in King of Prussia, closed down early morning on this Friday, saying that it was complying with the state governor’s directive to shut down all public schools, community centers and entertainment venues in the Montgomery County as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus spread. As per reports, the casino is set to reopen from March 27 if things are under control. The casino also claimed that till now there had not been any case of the virus reported at the property.
Hard Rock chain
Hard Rock café Inc, the leading chain of theme restaurants that mainly focusses on live entertainment, also announced to cancel all entertainments at its U.S. properties for a period of 30 days, which includes concerts in both large or small venues, or at nightclubs. The ban will also cancel scheduled shows by renowned artists like Adam Sandler, Pitbull, and T-Pain. Refunds will be given, and as such, the casino reassures to arrange the shows sometimes in the future.
MGM Resorts International
MGM Resorts International announced on Friday it is going to shut down all nightclubs, spas, day clubs, fitness centers, and buffets at all its Las Vegas-based properties from Sunday.
Atlantic City casinos
Atlantic City casinos have installed hand sanitizer dispensers at their entrances and also disinfected their slot machines to keep the virus spread at bay.
Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association
The Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association that has a lot of tribal members and local community people in Anadarko commuting back and forth said that in order to prevent the virus spread they are taking utmost care of things like placing hand sanitizers in places or frequently wiping down chairs, door knobs or even the slot machine handles. They are also closely monitoring commuters in the association every hour.
Several San Diego casinos
Apart from disinfecting the slot machines, the casinos at San Diego are also taking additional measures like using a casino chip company to sanitize the gaming chips.
These self-proclaimed decisions of the casinos, or sometimes the governments’ directives to close down casinos, though it means a huge loss of business. Still, for the sake of people’s safety they are compelled to take such decisions.
