Rivers Casino & Resort and del Lago Resort & Casino reopened September 10, the second and third of New York’s four commercial casinos to resume business after the longest state-imposed gaming industry shutdown in the country.
Rivers, located on the Mohawk River in Schenectady, and del Lago, located across the state in the Finger Lakes, are limited to 25 percent capacity in accordance with state guidelines and are not running table games, although they can apply to reinstate them once safety barriers approved by the state Gaming Commission are installed.
“There’s some challenging parts to the guidance,” del Lago General Manager Lance Young said. “We’re working through those with the state and we hope to have table games open soon.”
Tioga Downs Casino Resort near Binghamton in the Southern Tier hadn’t indicated last week when it would reopen. Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, the largest of the four, reopened September 9, the first date allowed under the state’s rules.
All three casinos have instituted comprehensive health and safety procedures, partly to comply with the state’s guidelines, partly on their own. These include non-touch temperature checks for all entering customers, who also must present ID for contact tracing purposes and must wear face coverings in the properties at all times.
Floors are marked to indicate social distancing, hand sanitizer stations with wipes are located property-wide, and special teams of employees are regulatory disinfecting gaming machines and other high-contact areas.
Young estimates that half del Lago’s slot machines, around 800, are back up, along with the property’s DraftKings Sportsbook. However, most non-gaming areas, including the 205-room hotel and most of the food and beverage outlets, remain closed.
“Once we open and see that we can provide the amenities to our guests safely and they can come here and gamble and it doesn’t provide risk to them, I think (the state will) allow us to increase our capacity as well as other areas of the entertainment sector,” Young said.
Rivers and Resorts World, which have deployed similar safety measures, are operating under the same limitations.
Rivers said it planned to open its hotel this week, though no details were provided.
Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all non-essential business closed on March 16. This included the four casinos and New York’s seven racetrack casinos. The 10 or so Native American casinos and machine gaming venues are not subject to the state’s authority and began reopening in May and June.
The racinos that have reopened to date are: Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens; Saratoga Casino and Hotel at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga; Batavia Downs Gaming and Hotel at Batavia Downs in Batavia; Vernon Downs Casino Hotel at Vernon Downs racetrack; and Hamburg Gaming at Buffalo Raceway
Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway, owned by Las Vegas-based gaming giant MGM Resorts International, is slated to reopen September 21.
Finger Lakes Gaming at Finger Lakes Racetrack in Farmington hadn’t announced a reopening date as of last week.
