News & Notes

The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved a license for a 75-machine Herbst casino in the town of Indian Springs, Nevada, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The venue, located near the Creech Air Force Base, will include a restaurant and convenience store, an eight-pump gasoline station and a charging station for electric vehicles. Opening is slated for early June. • Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas was down 53 percent year-over-year in March due to the coronavirus. Just over 2 million passengers arrived at or departed from McCarran in March, compared to 4.4 million in 2019. • Macau’s general unemployment rate increased 0.4 percentage points year-on-year to 2.1 percent between January and March—the first time the rate has risen above 2 percent since 2012, according to the Statistics and Census Service Bureau. • Three more workers at the Resorts World Las Vegas project have tested positive for Covid-19, for a total of seven cases. Some 1,500 workers are on-site at the $4.3 billion hotel-casino construction site. • Caesars Entertainment Corp. has announced an employee assistance program, Caesars Cares, that will give out assistance based on “unusual hardships” caused by the coronavirus shutdowns. Caesars has extended pay, paid time off and medical benefits through June 30. • Aristocrat Entertainment has partnered with Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s City of Dreams Manila to donate food packages to medics in the Philippine city. The supplier is using CoD’s transportation to donate 1,700 food packages across 10 hospitals and medical centers. • Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City has donated $50,000 to local charities including the Community FoodBank of New Jersey and Jewish Family Services. The funds will assist in their emergency work related to Covid-19 relief including food pantry services, homeless support and counseling. • U.K. lottery operator Camelot Group has announced that it will contribute £600 million to charities that have been hard-hit by Covid-19 circumstances. Funding will be made available to charitable organizations working in community support, disabilities, education, heritage, environment and sports.