Two veteran gaming attorneys — one a former member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the other a former Nevada Gaming Commission chairman — took issue Wednesday with any crackdown and tight control of the resort industry in the era of COVID-19.
The comments from Jeff Silver, an attorney with the firm Dickinson Wright and a member of the Gaming Control Board from 1975 to 1979, and John O’Reilly, a former Nevada Gaming Commission chairman, came during the second day of the ICE North America virtual conference. Both got pushback, however, from former Nevada Democratic Gov. Bob Miller, a gaming consultant.
Last week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board opened 111 regulatory cases against gaming license holders and will determine if any of the state’s casinos and other operators failed to comply with the state’s health and safety policies for COVID-19. Casinos have been required to enforce social distancing, limit the number of players at tables and, effective June 26 as mandated by Gov. Steve Sisolak, ensure that patrons wear masks in their properties.
Employees have been required to wear masks since casinos reopened on June 4.
Silver said Gaming Control Board agents aren’t health experts and questioned the Board being quiet about their investigations. He called for “realism” and “proportionality” for COVID-19 regulations to ensure the industry can be successful.
“I want to make sure what is not happening is the gaming regulators aren’t the motorcycle cop at a speed trap waiting to give people tickets,” Silver said. “As long as they’re continuing to work with and have empathy for the industry, I have no problem with regulating it. I just don’t want them building up a number of citations for the purpose of raising money like they used to do in New Jersey if anybody walked in who was a minor and it was an automatic $50,000 fine.”
Silver received support from O’Reilly, who said more autonomy should be given to gaming properties, rather than health officials and government regulators.
“I think we ought to leave more and more of it to the properties to make their judgments with guidance, as opposed to enforcement from gaming regulators,” O’Reilly said. “That’s a minority opinion that hasn’t been adopted by many, if anybody.”
Former Governor Bob Miller chimed in that measures need to be uniform instead of leaving it up to individual properties to decide. When casinos reopened, some properties worked to enforce social distancing and comply with state standards, while others didn’t fare as well and made national news that he implied hurt Las Vegas’ reputation. “Nobody was wearing masks and nobody was six feet apart,” Miller said. “There has to be some level of enforcement.”
O’Reilly said negative publicity is building about the restrictions. He pointed to a video posted online of a woman escorted out of Wynn Resorts for not wearing a mask. “That issue is just beginning,” he noted.
Miller warned that the nation remains in “uncharted waters” and nothing is “certain to get us through this dilemma as yet.” He pointed to the European Union faring better in handling COVID-19 cases that are rising rapidly in the U.S.
“A lot of that has to do with that we don’t have a national policy,” Miller said. “We have a hybrid of decisions all over the place, and no one has figured out what works for everyone. It’s going to be a slow process. As long as we keep as our primary consideration the health and well-being of all those involved, that’s got to be the underlying policy, followed by the economic impact.”
O’Reilly said there shouldn’t be a “one-size-fits-all mentality.” He questioned how society is dealing with COVID-19. Those who are most vulnerable and in danger of succumbing to the illness should be quarantined and “the rest of the world can make choices for themselves and go about living their lives,” he said.
O’Reilly got more political and said some people “in the general population are blinded by the opinion of one or more health-care professionals, with Dr. (Anthony) Fauci (NIH director) being one of the most popular.” He said others in health care have different views than Fauci and questioned how the science and recommendations have changed over time.
“We can’t develop a process that makes the employees comfortable, the customers comfortable, the regulators comfortable and the governor comfortable. (If we try), there will be no business for this industry in the future and industries that are related, such as entertainment and sports,” O’Reilly said.
Silver said there’s a lot of paranoia among older people who don’t want to leave their homes, let alone come to Las Vegas, and it’s hurting the recovery. That means Las Vegas has to rely on younger people, but placing too many restrictions on them will keep them away, he said. Nightclubs, for example, aren’t allowed to open.
“Those younger people want to do one thing,” Silver said. “Have fun. They want fun. What we have seen so far is security guards and gaming agents on the shoulders of our customers reminding them and poking them to wear their masks and not get too close together. These are all the things that take away from the experience that the gaming industry is all about.”
