Coast casinos will look different when they open due to COVID-19. Here’s a sneak peek.
There’s a lot of work to be done between now and when Mississippi casinos can start reopening on Thursday, May 21.
But those who miss the crab legs, the spinning of the slot machines and the hospitality at their favorite casinos may even have to wait a little longer.
Just as all the casinos didn’t open on Day One of sports betting, they may not all be ready to return on Thursday.
It’s one thing to get a reopening date after the coronavirus shutdown. It’s another for the Mississippi Gaming Commission to approve the new opening protocols, said David Strow, spokesman with IP Casino’s parent company Boyd Gaming.
The 12 casinos in South Mississippi and the 14 others in the state won’t look or feel like they did when they closed on March 16.
Here are some of the changes:
- Starting at the front door, there won’t be valet service at most casinos.
- Hand sanitizer stations will be at every access point.
- Plexiglass will shield visitors and those who work at the front check-in and at the cage on gaming floors.
- More plexiglass will separate some of the slot machines.
- Table games will be limited to three players.
- Employees must wear masks and customers will be encouraged to wear masks.
- Some of the restaurants and amenities will be closed for now.
- Restaurants that are open will have tables spaced 6 feet apart.
- Gone are the days when people will help themselves at the buffets. Staff will make their plates.
- Spas and gyms will open. Poker rooms and concert venues will not yet open.
Coast casinos have come back before
Casinos began taking precautions before the state shut them down on March 16.
Chett Harrison, general manager at Golden Nugget Biloxi, said as far as he knows no employee at any Coast casino has tested positive for COVID-19 within two weeks of the closure.
Casinos also will take the new precautions required to keep guests and employees safe, he said.
“To me the marketing is going to be where people feel the safest,” he said.
Casino operators in Nevada aren’t practiced in the art of comeback and reopening. South Mississippi casinos and their employees made it through Hurricane Katrina, the oil spill, the financial crisis and many other storms.
“We’ll be back open soon,” Harrison said.
Gaming changes are underway
Realizing there would be big changes when Scarlet Pearl Casino eventually reopened in D’Iberville, CEO LuAnn Pappas started preparing early.
“We immediately went into action, the day after we closed,” said Greg Bosarge, chief financial officer.
James Creek, director of facilities, designed, built and installed plexiglass dividers between slot machines that extend from below the seats to above players’ heads. Using the dividers and taking every other slot machine in a row out of action to maintain social distancing, they will open with about 450 games, Bosarge said, about half the usual number.
They’ve also fashioned plexiglass shields around the table games.
“Initially, we will not open the buffet,” Bosarge said. That will follow later, but staff is working to extend the seating area in front of Butler’s Bar & Lounge to provide more space, and building a high limits area.
Lava Links Golf Course will be opening along with the casino, with social distancing there, too, Bosarge said.
New way to buffet
Rows of slot machines at Palace Casino in Biloxi have been re-positioned into pods, where no player is sitting next to another. The work started the week the casinos closed to move them — “Every single one,” said Keith Crosby, Palace general manager.
On a day when the games were silent and the casino was empty, it otherwise had pretty much the same feel as before the closing. The result of the new layout is not that many fewer machines, Crosby said, just a significant amount of work.
The buffet also looks a lot like it did before, but with more space between tables.
“There’s no reason to not have the same product,” Crosby said. The challenge was, “How can we do exactly what we were doing,” he said, in a world with the new coronavirus.
They extended the plexiglass guard over the buffet counter so the customer can still see all the choices of food and the server can pass the plate underneath, cafeteria-style.
People will still be able to have all they want. “Just let us get it for you,” he said. “We will prepare your plate.”
Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County also will reopen in stages, said general manager John Ferrucci. The buffet is one of the and it will be among the first things to open, he said.
Potential food chain issues
One issue that could face the casinos on reopening is getting every item normally on the buffet because of disruptions to the food chain.
“All of us ready for the same thing at the same time from the same people,” Crosby said, could be a challenge at first.
Three restaurants — Mignon’s Steaks & Seafood, Stacked Grill and Wahoo’s Poolside Bar — won’t open at first.
The Palace also will hold off opening the sportsbook until the professional teams get back in action, Crosby said. They probably will have a window open at the cage where people can cash in a winning ticket or turn in a ticket for a game that never happened.
Staff placed 6-foot markers on the floor in the lobby and in front of the ATM machines.
Smoke-free advantage
Crosby said people are calling to make hotel reservations, even those who typically play at other casinos.
“We have that head start of being smoke-free already,” he said.
The casino took a financial hit when the owner decided to be the first casino in the state to go smoke-free. Now Palace Casino could be ahead of the competition.
Casino employee concerns
When the Mississippi Gaming Commission confirmed the opening date, casino employees took to social media to say how eager they are to return and how concerned they are for everyone’s safety.
“I’m so ready to go back to work,” said Ashley Marie Lewis, a money counter at Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis.
“The casino has been very good to us,” she said. Her supervisor personally contacted her during the shutdown to make sure she was doing well and she received a text message this week saying the casino was close to reopening with new social distancing guidelines.
The message didn’t say if employees will wear masks and gloves, “But that is to be one of my questions when we open up,” she said.
Her work environment already is highly regulated.
“We have to touch every slot machine on the floor,” she said. Those who count the money typically aren’t allowed to wear long sleeves or gloves or masks. The room in which they count the money is small and filled with machines, which she said will make it hard to socially distance.
Lewis said she has faith the people she works with will together find a way to keep safe.
Other employees said on social media they especially are concerned for seniors in the high-risk category for catching COVID-19.
Casinos’ impact on economy
While the debate goes on about whether casinos and other businesses should reopen while new cases of coronavirus still are reported every day, there’s no questioning the impact of casinos in Mississippi.
The payroll in March 2019 was $23.4 million on the Coast, $39.5 million statewide.
Coast casinos employed 10,570 people last March, and 16,533 jobs were directly attributed to the casinos a year ago, with many more in businesses that supply the casinos.
Those suppliers now will be delivering masks, hand sanitizer and protection devices to help keep the staff and customers safe as casinos reopen.
