It gets pretty cold in Washington state starting in the fall. The state’s non-tribal casinos are asking to be allowed to move indoors from their tent operations before the cold winds start to blow—and as it happens, a storm is pushing into the Northwest.
The tribal casinos have been operating indoors ever since they reopened from the Covid-19 closures imposed by Governor Jay Inslee. He is only allowing non-tribal casinos to operate if they are outdoors, under tents.
Eric Persson of Maverick Gaming, whose company owns the majority of non-tribal casinos in the state, is asking to be allowed to move indoors.
Last week he told KOMO News, “Right now we’re outdoors as part of Summerfest. Our biggest challenge right now: the fall is coming.”
Persson, who was speaking from one of his casinos, Great American Casino in Lakewood, added, “I have 400 team members right now furloughed who want to come back to work. We need to get indoors. If the movie theaters and bowling alleys can be indoors, so can we.”
Persson has the example of the Emerald Queen Casino to point to as an example of the unfairness of the governor’s policy. It is operated by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, which, being sovereign, can disregard Inslee’s rules. More to the point, however, Persson and his allies say the tribes have operated safely indoors. He just wants to follow their example.
Inslee is open to that. He commented last week, “We continue to talk to businesses to see if there is a way to do that. Are there protocols that could be established that would allow that to happen safely.”
Persson says while the casinos have been operating outdoor that they have been working on their permanent gaming areas to make them safe from the spread of the virus. This includes installing Plexiglas barriers to separate card players from each other and dealers.
