Casino COVID Reality - First Hand reports on casino life?

I hope to not start a discussions about the pros and cons to certain post COVID rules here, but merely get an estimate from the folks that have been: Which casino crowd has the most strict social distancing behavior in reality?

I have seen the casino plans for reopening, but also videos of the reality not matching up.

One of my uncles (not on social media, degenerate gambler with lots of medical issues) wants to head back to Vegas next week. I was hoping to get him (and others alike) feedback on where (which casino) his gambling buddies are most likely to follow social distancing.

Again, to emphasize, I would prefer not to hear the pros and cons, and only first hand reports, kindly, pretty please

 

Both casinos I went to had small crowds and were spaced out.

The drink line at Ameristar will be hard to police when it's more busy.

At Horseshoe, many machine stools were removed and couples who wanted to sit together at a machine moved them, leaving vacant "on" machines without a stool.

 

MGM properties have actually taken measures to limit exposure and spread.

 

He is with CET, mostly Paris and Harrahs. I also saw this online report: https://vegasadvantage.com/las-vegas-strip-trip-report from the first day, but it looks to me that the weekend crowd yesterday was much larger and less concerned about the virus. I think RedRock is a great idea.

 

I know you're looking for firsthand accounts (I won't be able to give one before your uncle's trip), but it might be good to search videos on Youtube of each casino (e.g. Caesar's Palace) and filter the results by "This Week" or "Today". This is a bit time consuming, but gives pretty decent firsthand accounts with limited bias.

 

Vegas does not have some magic shroud protecting it. If contracting COVID is a bad thing for some, then it simply makes sense to avoid congregating with other people, no matter the "plans" to make things safe.

 

I know your uncle is going through I am not the huge gambler but I miss Vegas. I have been watching the videos on Youtube and for now, Sonya and Ken2V are correct there is no magic around Vegas and depending on why he is a high risk it will be hard to go there. But there is hope medicine is moving along and we will be back

 

Based on what we saw the last couple days if he is trying to avoid possibly catching it I’d definitely go off strip. Every casino we were in was very busy, almost like a normal summer Saturday night. (Went to Venetian, Harrahs, Flamingo, Caesar’s, Bellagio, Cosmo). Venetian is taking the cleaning part very seriously. We did see a lot of dice and chip cleaning at all places but there’s just tons of people and not a lot of adherence to distancing.

 

From what I've seen, the D and Cosmo are the two places you'll want to avoid. Some of the videos from those two places look like random pre-COVID footage.

 

A serious question: Does any of this really surprise anyone?

 

My personal observations from visiting a local casino last week is that the employees, who are forced to comply with all the hullabaloo are "taking it seriously", the customers by and large are not. Of course I live in an area where it has never been a big concern for most, for instance the bars opened a month ago and if you went to one today you would never know a pandemic existed.

 

Not at all. The wearing of masks is encouraged but not required so once people get to Vegas and start having cocktails....the good judgment goes out the window. Which we all know is the reason for the long history of "free" cocktails in Vegas from the beginning. I guess this is going to be a good test of the theory by some of the doctors we've all seen in the media that the virus may dwindle in the summer heat.

 

I visited NYNY, MGM, and the Cosmo the 4th through the 7th. They are trying ..... that's really all I can say. They most definitely are trying. NYNY has everything so plexiglassed up that you can't hear the people behind the glass (annoying), the Cosmo just has the barriers directly in front of the station with gaps on the sides. The MGM properties have legit handwashing stations right smack dab in the middle of the casions. Think, bathroom sinks, because that's for real what they are. I found it bizarre. The Cosmo just has hand sanitizer squirter thingy's everywhere. MGM properties also have mask and glove dispensers affixed to their handwashing stations. All employees were wearing masks, and i'd say about 60 - 70% of people were wearing masks on Thursday and that dropped to about 50 - 60 % over the weekend (and that's probably over estimating) No where that I went required them. Nyny had security "policing" elevators. If you tried to get into an elevator with people who weren't in your group without a mask on, they wouldn't let you. LIke be together in a group, or everyone in the elevator has to wear a mask. At NYNY they had machines turned off if they were next to each other. At Cosmo, they just had the chairs rationed. Like at NYNY if there was a bank of say four machines side by side, only the end ones were turned on. At Cosmo, there would just be two chairs, so you picked which machine you wanted to play. Crowds were non existent on Thursday / early Friday, but by Friday night, it was more "lively"

To be fair, I don't think any of the properties were prepared for the number of people that showed up last weekend. They seemed to all do their best with spacing out lines and whatnot, but by Saturday, it was a free for all. Lines were LONG AF to everything! and the spacing was most definitely not 6'.

I'm happy to answer any direct questions anyone has.

 

Coming from a tourist who frequents the local joints, I would say they are as busy, if not more busy, than the places on the strip.

I was there for opening weekend, so have visuals and first hand accounts of the situation.

Think about this:
Hotels are limiting guest rooms...so this naturally creates “space” in the casinos.
Airports, including Mccarran, are still ghost towns.
Locals have been couped up for months and want to get out.
So what’s this equate to?
Fewer than normal tourists....which opens up space all across the board in Vegas
More than normal locals looking to get out and cut loose....which plugs up the off-strip places that they frequent.

Sunset, South Point, Orleans, Sams Town....all very busy over the weekend. More so than management envisioned...this coming from management.

Maybe 25% mask usage by customers. If you’re in the high risk category, I think there’s better places to be entertained right now.

For a healthy 30-something, I was excited for the return of people and gambling....and enjoyed it.