Nevada regulators say they won’t relax capacity restrictions in the state’s casinos until more employees are vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.
Nevada casinos are currently operating under capacity restrictions that have been steadily relaxed since the fall and currently stand at 50 percent. Higher occupancy limits are in the offing, beginning May 1.
This “measured approach,” as Gaming Control Board Chairman Brin Gibson termed it, will continue on the basis of a “number of factors.”
Primarily this will depend on the rate of new infections statewide. But with tourists returning to casinos in increasingly greater numbers, in Las Vegas especially, “the status of vaccination penetration within the state’s hospitality workforce” looms larger as a consideration, according to a memorandum issued jointly by the Control Board and the state Gaming Commission.
The memo voiced concern over the “relatively low degree” of vaccination within that group.
“Viral surges are a continuing threat to the economic health of the gaming industry and greater state, as they threaten the hard-fought efforts undertaken over the last year to safely reopen,” the memo said, adding that “Consideration by the (Control Board) to increase gaming floor occupancy will only be taken in cases where licensees have taken measurable and material steps to vaccinate, and thereby, protect their workforce, visitors and the community.”
In line with this, casino operators are stepping up their involvement, notably in Las Vegas, where MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Station Casinos and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas have begun sponsoring vaccinations for employees at on-site clinics.
“We’re committed to doing all that we can to help get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible by removing barriers to access and bringing vaccination clinics directly to our employees and their families,” MGM said in a statement.
To date, more than 18 percent of the Nevada population has been fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services, including nearly 334,000 people in and around Las Vegas, and that’s expected to increase with Governor Steve Sisolak’s recent order extending the inoculations to all Nevadans 16 and older.
According to The Associated Press, the state had confirmed 462 new cases of the virus as of April 3 and 14 more deaths, raising the state’s totals to 304,454 cases and 6,260 deaths.
