Some of California casinos and cardrooms tried to remain open, despite the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, but their hopes were quashed on March 19, when Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all residents of the state to go home and stay home. Due to the “shelter-in-place” mandate, the following casinos are closed until further notice:
Los Angeles County. The Commerce Hotel & Casino, the Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens, the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in Bell Gardens and Hollywood Park Casino, the Golden State’s largest card room casinos, all are closed.
Together they employ about 8,000 workers and usually have about 20,000 patrons per day. Over the weekend a worker at the Commerce had tested positive for the virus.
San Jose County. San Jose card rooms Casino M8trix and Bay 101 Casino have closed, at least until April 4.
San Diego County. All casinos in San Diego County are now closed. San Diego has the largest number of tribal casinos in the Golden State.
Before they closed the casinos Sycuan Casino Resort attempted to deal with coronavirus concerns by installing more hand sanitizers, increasing staff training and cleaning slot machines and “touch points.” They also installed anti-bacterial soaps in restrooms and used a company to sanitize gaming chips. Sycuan closed last week for an indefinite period.
Barona Resort & Casino had taken similar actions. But it also noted that its air filtration system includes ultraviolet light disinfecting.
Other San Diego casinos that closed are Harrah’s Resort Southern California, which first instituted a regime of reminding employees to hand wash often, posting signs reminding guests to do the same, and increasing sanitizing work areas before giving in to the increasing pressure to close. This was followed by cancelling all shows in March.
Although at first Valley View Casino in Valley Center didn’t join the rush to close, eventually it too succumbed to the pressure and said it would close on March 20. Its popular buffet, high limit lounge and spa closed days earlier. Prior to the closure the casino and hotel had increase the frequency of sanitation and disinfecting of surfaces, slots, kitchen and food areas.
Pala Casino, Spa & Resort did not cancel any shows in advance of announcing that it would close as of March 20.
San Bernardino County. On March 14, San Manuel Casino announced a temporary closure until the end of March, but that the date could be extended depending on circumstances.
Riverside County. The largest casino on the West Coast, Pechanga Resort Casino, announced it would close March 14. On March 19, Pechanga announced that it would be donating $100,000 word of food to local charities.
“We’re happy to know that people who need it most in our region will be getting the food assistance they need during this difficult time,” said Jared Munoa, president of the Pechanga Development Corporation. “It’s a lot of food. The amount of food service our team provides can be staggering and we give our guests the best quality. We are very glad it’s going to deserving folks who are undergoing unprecedented circumstances.”
Other casinos that are closed include Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, Soboba Casino Resort,
Morongo Casino, Resort and Spa, Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella,
Augustine Casino, Cahuilla Casino.
Santa Barbara County. The Chumash Casino, owned by Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, closed on March 15.
Northern California. Cache Creek Casino Resort, operated by the Yocha Dehe Wintun tribe, was the first tribal casino in Northern California to close. Other casinos in Northern California that closed were Table Mountain Casino, owned by Table Mountain Rancheria, Jackson Rancheria, Red Hawk Casino, Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, Sherwood Valley Casino.
