New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that the states casinos and racinos, shuttered by state order since March 16, will be allowed to reopen on Wednesday.
There will be restrictions, however. The industry, the last in the U.S. to remain closed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be limited to 25 percent capacity on the gaming floor. Slot machines must be spaced no less than six feet apart. Table gaming will remain closed initially, but operators will be allowed to apply to reopen them with physical barriers installed between players.
Enhanced air filtrations systems also are required, and properties must ensure that face coverings are worn and social distancing guidelines are maintained.
Enforcement will be overseen by the New York Gaming Commission and the State Police.
Not surprisingly, operators responded with relief.
“We’re eagerly looking forward to welcoming everyone back,” said Justin Moore, general manager of Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady.
“The Rivers team has been working hand in hand with the state to make all the changes necessary to reopen, and we will meet, or exceed, all requirements to provide a safe and healthy entertainment environment,” he told the Albany Times-Union.
Resorts World Catskills in Monticello and Resorts World New York City, the giant racino at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, will reopen their doors on Wednesday, making them the first properties in the state to resume business.
“We have implemented a plan to seamlessly integrate the unmatched experiences in excitement, entertainment and luxury that guests have come to expect, with the more stringent health protocols that are needed to operate safely,” Bob DeSalvio, president of parent company Genting Americas East, said in a statement.
A spokesman for Tioga Downs Casino Resort near Binghamton in the Southern Tier told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that management was waiting for the state’s official guidance documents to be released before declaring an opening day.
Likewise, a spokeswoman for Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway said, “We are awaiting specific guidelines from the state but are very excited to be able to start to welcome back our employees and guests in a safe and healthy manner.”
She said the racino, the second-largest in New York after Resorts World NYC, hopes to resume business this month, but it will take time to recall its 900 furloughed workers and get them trained.
Moore said only that Rivers would announce its reopening date “soon.”
With New York’s commercial gaming lockdown closing in on 200 days, the longest in the country, financial difficulties have been mounting for the more than 5,000 workers in sector who have been furloughed. Concerns were mounting as well that many of those furloughs would become permanent layoffs unless Cuomo acted soon to allow the state’s eight racinos and four full-scale casinos to reopen.
It was a situation rendered all the more bitter for the workers𑁋and the local governments that derive millions in tax dollars from the venues𑁋by the fact that around a dozen Indian-owned casinos and slot halls have been back in business outside the state’s jurisdiction since late May and early June.
On August 13, several hundred workers marched on the Capitol building in Albany to make their plight known.
“We just have no guidance, we have no idea whatsoever,” one of the organizers of the protest said at the time. “We don’t know if it’s going to be next week, if it’s going to be two weeks, or if we are going to get to October 1 and we’re all going to be laid off. That’s the worst part of it.”
At the start of the summer, the industry had expected to be part of the fourth and final stage of a carefully measured reopening of the New York economy. But deemed by the Cuomo administration to be “high risk,” it was excluded, along with movie theaters, gyms and shopping malls.
The caution was rooted in the state’s ordeal over the course of the spring, when it found itself at the epicenter of the Covid outbreak in the U.S. and on the brink of a public health catastrophe. At its worst, more than 100 people were dying daily. Since then, a massive effort to flatten the curve has been successful, and the rate of new infections statewide has dropped below 1 percent, a level at which medical experts believe community spread has been arrested.
The administration has been adamant about maintaining that rate and has imposed quarantines on travelers from any state with a positive test rate of 10 percent and is requiring all arrivals to complete a medical form.
“The numbers show we are right where we want to be, but what’s happening around the country is a cold reminder that we need to continue being cautious and smart and disciplined,” Cuomo said last month. “No one wants to go back to the hell that we went through.”
