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New Jersey Governor Orders Shutdown of Indoor Casino Dining

  • Written By Kevin Parker
  • Edited
  • Reading 5 minutes

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has issued an executive order on Thursday, November 12, suspending all indoor dining until further notice. The measure is intended as part of the state’s overall mitigation strategy and it will affect casino indoor dining venues while casinos will be allowed to continue operation. The measure will apply after 10 p.m. every night.

“Looking at the data, we are taking surgical steps that we hope will help mitigate the current increasing rate of spread, “

Murphy added

The governor confirmed that while state authorities would seek to restrict access to dining venues, gaming facilities will be allowed to operate as per current guidelines and health recommendations.

However, no dining or beverages could take place after 10 p.m. on a casino property, Murphy reminded.

Caesars Entertainment Restarts Rio Resort Las Vegas on December 22

Caesars has made a big announcement earlier this week announcing the restart of its famed Rio Resort in Las Vegas. As per the company’s announcement, the property will reopen on December 22, but the adjacent hotel with 2,522 rooms will only be available during weekends.

This comes as a follow-up on what Caesars chief executive Tom Reeg said earlier this year during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, confirming that the Rio would restart operation before the New Year.

Effectively, Rio will be the last out of 54 properties across 16 states in the United States to restart operation since it had to shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced all commercial and tribal casinos to shut down earlier in 2020.

Commenting on the reopening push, Caesars President Anthony Carano said that the past nine months had been challenging for Caesars and the property. Yet, an incredible effort has been put in restarting Rio and welcoming guests back.

Even though the property is located off the famous Las Vegas Strip, everyone feels confident in the property’s ability to attract tourists. Caesars will be reopening bars, loungers, restaurants and naturally, its casino floor.

Massachusetts Casinos Convinced They Should be in Charge of Sports Betting

With dame fortune smiling on sports betting enthusiasts in Massachusetts, local casino operators have become convinced that they should be the ones controlling everything that has to do with the sports wagering industry in the state.

Penn National gaming and Wynn Resorts properties in the state have said that they should be allowed to accept sports wagers under new expanded gaming licenses. The companies argue that they have been the ones to support the state through the establishment of a “robust brick-and-mortar gaming industry”.

Allowing online-only gaming venues would make it difficult for land-based properties to compete, but also impact negatively employees as well as tax revenue for the state.

Yet, despite the contentious language citing online sports betting operations, Massachusetts’ gambling establishments cautioned lawmakers not to delay the adoption of a legal framework, citing fears that neighboring states adopting sports betting would start drawing revenue away from Massachusetts gaming facilities.

Nevada Governor Plans Additional Restrictions to Limit COVID-19 Spread

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has proven a bit of a divisive figure, but a great leader nevertheless. While the governor has been gung-ho on the virus and didn’t bat an eyelash at the face of COVID-19 or shied away from making tough political and economic decisions, he has still won the respect of Nevadans who have supported him even in the enforcement of unpopular measures such as casino and entertainment venues closures.

Speaking on Tuesday, Gov. Sisolak said that he would consider a tougher round of measures should the state not see a “significant reversal of the current trends.” Gov. Sisolak has urged businesses to make all possible actions to successfully contain the virus and allow for remote working where the possibility exists.

He similarly called for people to observe Nevada’s mask-wearing and social-distancing rules and health recommendations by authorities. Casinos will continue to operate, and the governor doesn’t plan rolling back their operations for now, but he has sent an unambiguous sign that he would be willing to act on tougher actions should the need arise.

700 Visitors Contracted COVID-19 after Visiting NV since Casino Reopening

A recent study has revealed that estimated 700 visitors to Nevada have tested positive for COVID-19 since casinos were allowed to reopen earlier this year in June. The data, published by the Department of Health and Human, said that at least 712 people tested positive for COVID-19 soon after returning home from a visit to Nevada.

These numbers are reassuring given that Southern Nevada welcomed an estimated 5.7 million people since June, based on Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reports. Yet, many of these numbers rely on good cross-border reporting activity between states.

So far, Nevada has been notified about cases of individuals testing positive after returning from the Silver State by Arizona, California and Ohio. Meanwhile, Nevada has an estimated 115,000 cases of COVID.

Casinos Eager to Bank in on Prop Bets, NCAA Not so Much

Speaking during the Sports Betting USA 2020 online seminar, NCAA VP for Law, Policy and Governance Naima Stevenson-Starks said that the collegiate body was concerned about the suggestion to allow sports betting on the performance on individual student-athletes, more popularly known as proposition bets.

According to Starks, who spoke on behalf of the collegiate body, enabling such bets could have a detrimental effect to the integrity of college football and basketball. While Starks said that the case of prop bets in the NFL is different, it’s worth noting that the National Football League had similar concerns a few years back when sports betting was only getting started.

Sportsbooks have argued that most prop bets presently listed focus on overall performance results, such as how many points a team would score, for example. Yet, offshore sportsbooks continue to offer prop bets on individual athletes’ performance, which, according to sportsbooks, can be tackled by adding more prop bets closer to home and therefore making the online trip to an offshore sportsbook unnecessary.

Kevin was raised on sports since a young teen and following a (fortunate) injury pursued new hobbies in table games such as Blackjack and Poker. Since 2009 Kevin has been writing for casino sites for various big names in the industry and CasinoSites.us is but one of his latest passion projects.