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Illinois Casinos Can Reopen 7/1/2020

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Casino Hotels' started by Sonya, Jun 26, 2020.

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  1. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    Illinois Casinos, Video Gaming Operations To Reopen Wednesday, July 1

    https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/06/25/illinois-casinos-video-gaming-operations-to-reopen-wednesday-july-1/

    The Illinois Gaming Board said every casino and video gaming terminal operator in the state was required to provide their own reopening plan to guide operations for when gaming resumes at 9 a.m. on July 1.

    Under the state’s guidelines, casinos must enforce six-foot social distancing requirements throughout their facilities; require customers and staff to wear face coverings; provide free masks and other personal protective equipment to employees; conduct daily health screenings of patrons and employees, and prohibit anyone who fails a health screening from entering; and set detailed schedules for cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing their facilities.

    Casinos also must designate a “pandemic response liaison” who will serve as their primary contact with the state regarding reopening plans, and assist public health officials with any contact tracing efforts.

    Businesses with video gaming terminals also must provide detailed reopening plans, and provide daily health screenings for employees and customers.

    Video gaming terminals must either be laid out to provide at least six feet of space between users; or be divided by physical barriers at least one foot taller than head level for seated customers, and extending at least three feet out from the front of the terminals. Facilities must be cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized each day before opening, and operators also must have a detailed plan for cleaning and disinfecting throughout the day.
     
  2. greekjim

    greekjim King Gyro

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    The casinos that I have been to in Illinois are small, so I’ll be interested in how they do social distancing
     
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  3. moistowlet

    moistowlet Tourist

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    I've been to Harrah's Joliet just under a year ago as a nice stop on the way down from Chicago to visit some friends in central IL. Was a good experience overall, but the casino is absolutely tiny. It's more or less a single large room. For any other midwesterners that are familiar with Horseshoe Hammond, I'd honestly say Harrahs Joliet's entire casino floor is roughly the size of the HH high limits slot room combined with the adjacent high limit tables room. I haven't been to any other IL casinos, but I can't imagine the smaller places are going to be able to reasonably enforce any sort of realistic social distancing.
     
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  4. SMG

    SMG VIP Whale

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    All of the Illinois casinos are riverboats, so they can't accommodate huge crowds, even less with the Covid restrictions. Technically, Rivers Casino is land based, but there was a discussion about that awhile back in another thread. That place is also tiny. I have a feeling there will be long lines to get into any of these casinos when they reopen. The only thing that I like about Illinois casinos is that they are smoke-free. LOL
     
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  5. KnowItAll

    KnowItAll VIP Whale

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    They are not river boats anymore. Metropolis moved into the convention area and built the casino on land. And yes they are small casinos but machines off and chairs missing from tables makes it social distancing
     
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  6. HardEight44

    HardEight44 High-Roller

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    How does Joliet compare with metropolis for harrahs?
     
  7. greekjim

    greekjim King Gyro

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    I always wanted to check out metropolis but way to south for me and too much driving
     
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  8. jgates8

    jgates8 VIP Whale

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    I would have said (from one visit to Metropolis) that it had more machines than Joliet. However that was a few years back. Is it still a boat or was it redone to land based?

    To me it seems as if Joliet would be able to accommodate more if they used the partition rules that it lists for the gaming terminals. Otherwise there definitely won’t be many machines on if 6 feet is required. I consider it a very small casino. My friends actually prefer to drive a couple extra hours to Council Bluffs because there are two CET props. They didn’t feel enough machines to start with at Joliet.
     
  9. greekjim

    greekjim King Gyro

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    Anyone get any CET offers for July in their account? I Got nothing
     
  10. rhinoman7

    rhinoman7 A Diamond in the Ruff

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    Horseshoe Hammond is having a Welcome Back promotion of 5x RCs and Tier Credits through the month of July. Maybe the Illinois locations will offer something similar?
     
  11. GeorgeJ.

    GeorgeJ. VIP Whale

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    Rivers Casino is tiny? It's probably bigger than any of the casinos in downtown Vegas... Capacity would be thousands of people..
     
  12. rhinoman7

    rhinoman7 A Diamond in the Ruff

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    Rivers Casino is about the size of The D casino.
     
  13. dankyone

    dankyone VIP Whale

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    Rivers is 44,000 sq feet. It is small compared to a major Strip casino...by comparison Bellagio has 116,000 sq feet of casino space and CP 124,000. It FEELS tiny because too many tables and machines are jammed together in the space they have.

    I don’t like the casino either, because it is perpetually overcrowded and their VP pay tables are not attractive. However, it is non smoking and Hugo’s is the best casino restaurant in the area.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2020
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  14. Brandt

    Brandt VIP Whale

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    They could have faked it out like Rivers Casino did, there is some sort of container of water under the casino to qualify as a Riverboat. Rivers in expanding and the expansion I thought was going to be the first non riverboat in IL .
     
  15. Hitmaxbet

    Hitmaxbet MIA

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    Rivers sucks
    Don’t even waste your time
     
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  16. greekjim

    greekjim King Gyro

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    I haven’t been there since Illinois passed that gambling expansion bill. Did they cram slot machines where ever they can now?
     
  17. adamduke88

    adamduke88 Low-Roller

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    Almost every bar and many restaurants have some gaming machines in them now.
     
  18. Vegas28m

    Vegas28m Medium Roller, Chicago

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    They put quite a few slots upstairs before you get to the escalator. Sometime it's so crowded, it's hard to reach it to get to the main casino.
     
  19. vegasvstr

    vegasvstr VIP Whale

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    Considering a visit to Harrah's Southern Illinois (Metropolis) if they do 5x.
    In normal times do they have a Diamond lounge? Does it have food? I saw an older review saying it was "just a big room with a few chairs"? (I know likely to be closed)

    Considering S. Indiana but not excited about it having a smoking + masks combination.
     
  20. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Under the old rules, gaming spot capacity was 1200 at every Illinois casino. I think that's been amended to up to 2000, but many existing Illinois casinos can't handle that many gaming spots. Most casinos in IL aren't big because of the gaming regulations.

    I can't imagine how Grand Victoria will successfully social distance. Probably the most cramped casino I have ever been in.
     
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