NEWS & NOTES

Nevada’s Lakeside Inn and Casino on Lake Tahoe won’t reopen after the state’s coronavirus shutdown ends. Management said that because the 124-room resort has gaming it was denied an emergency small business loan to ride out the crisis. Plans are to sell the property, which first opened in 1985 as Harvey’s Inn. More than 200 jobs will be lost with the closure, according to news reports. • French casino group Partouche will furlough almost all its workforce—up to 95 percent—during the Covid-19 shutdown, and no dividends will be paid to shareholders during the same time period. Partouche said it will do anything necessary measures to “limit the inevitable economic consequences generated by this brutal and unpredictable crisis.” • Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the Philippine gaming operator behind the Solaire casino resort in Manila, has opened an emergency facility at the Rizal Memorial Sport Complex. It’s Phase I of a two-part plan to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic. • About 46 million face masks have been sold in Macau in the past two and a half months, authorities in the territory say. The rationed sale of the masks started in January. Every 10 days, each person can purchase 10 masks as part of the ongoing battle against Covid-19. • MGM Springfield in Springfield, Massachusetts has provided 160 cots and 16 outdoor heaters to the city’s Covid-19 response. The supplies will be utilized in new homeless tent triage facilities. • Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin says it will have to temporarily furlough 90 percent of its 2,700 team members. Potawatomi announced it was suspending its operations last month. Concerts and events have also been canceled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. • Majestic Star casinos in Gary, Indiana recently donated groceries to 300 local families, with enough food to prepare 20 meals. Some 900 Majestic Star employees and nearly 5,000 casino workers in Northwest Indiana have been laid off to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. • Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts announced late last month that all open properties would offer complimentary rooms to medical personnel and first responders in the vicinity. That offer includes Polo Towers, Cancun Resort and Desert Paradise Resort. Workers have booked more than 2,500 free nights at Diamond Resorts properties across the country. • Two million surgical masks—1 million designated for Nevada health care providers and first responders—arrived in the United States from China on April 9. The masks were transported by a Boeing 767 owned by Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. •  Chefs at MGM Resorts International are making 1,000 hot meals a day and donating them to Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada. They will continue their extensive takeout service until April 30. The company has donated more than 363,000 pounds of food locally to those in need. • The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma has opened drive-through Covid-19 testing centers that serve the Chickasaw people and the greater communities of Ardmore, Purcell and Ada. The tribe cited a higher incidence among multi-generational living on reservations. • A fourth worker at the Resorts World Las Vegas construction site has tested positive for Covid-19. Developers of the $4.3 billion Strip resort say they are focused only on “critical areas” of the project, require wellness screenings for all workers at the start of each shift, and have installed more hand-washing stations. • Melco Resorts & Entertainment has donated 500,000 surgical masks to the Macau government to help vulnerable groups in the community, such including the elderly, single-parent families, long-term patients, and medical support staff.   • Table Mountain Casino near Fresno, California has announced it will remain closed at least until May 31. Employees are furloughed but will continue to receive medical benefits. The casino is owned and operated by Table Mountain Rancheria. • California’s Eagle Mountain Casino and Mono Winds casinos say they plan to reopen May 1.