Nevada’s hotels – including rooms and suites associated with resorts on the Las Vegas Strip – are not subject to the 25% capacity restrictions on various businesses that take effect Tuesday in an effort to mitigate the state’s escalating COVID-19 cases.
The governor’s office said Monday that hotel room usage is exempt from the new occupancy limits announced by Gov. Steve Sisolak late Sunday afternoon, which will restrict capacity in casinos, restaurants, and bars throughout the state, including restaurants and bars inside casinos.
Since the pandemic began, the governor has not limited hotel room occupancy, saying that transit workers, truckers, and supply chain workers needed access to hotel rooms. Hotel-casinos throughout the state closed on March 18 for 78 days, when Sisolak ordered a shutdown of gaming to slow cases of coronavirus.
“My goal is to aggressively try to attack this spread while maintaining some portion of our economy and our daily life,” Sisolak said Sunday.
Sisolak said the pandemic inside Nevada had grown to “wildfire levels” and that the state had entered a “red zone.” Nevada’s seven-day average of new cases has exceeded 2,000, more than double the figures from early November.
With Monday’s 2,339 new cases, the state has reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 infections five times in the last 10 days. Sisolak said 10% of all COVID-19 cases recorded in Nevada since the beginning of the pandemic were reported last week.
“Going forward, we will reduce capacity in certain high-risk areas that have been shown nationally and in Nevada to contribute to the spread of COVID-19,” Sisolak said.
The governor said the numbers will be evaluated following a “three-week pause” to determine any possible dadditional restrictions.
Casinos reopened on June 4 following the 78-day closure and have since been operating under COVID-19 guidelines covering health, safety, cleaning, and capacity limitations.
But the pandemic has continued to weigh down the Southern Nevada tourism industry. Through September, gaming revenues on the Strip were down 45%, the market’s visitation was off 55%, and airline passenger volume at McCarran International Airport dipped 56.5%.
Hotel occupancies have been running in the mid-30% range during the week and between 50% and 80% on weekends, according to resort operators.
MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts, and Las Vegas Sands have closed hotel rooms in several Strip properties during the middle of the week due to lack of business.
In a statement, MGM Resorts said it would comply with the governor’s new directive, but the company was unclear about the effect the capacity limits would have on the restart earlier this month of several entertainment attractions at its Strip resorts.
“This will clearly have a major impact on entertainment, and we are working with our partners to determine the path forward,” MGM spokesman Brian Ahern said in a statement. “We will share that information as quickly as possible to minimize guest inconvenience.”
To keep casino floors within the 25% occupancy limit, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Brin Gibson said property operators can utilize the “eye-in-the-sky” surveillance systems and accounting technology that calculates how many slot machines are being played and how many patrons are on a casino floor.
“I’m not overly concerned with the ability of most operators to make the assessment,” Gibson said of casinos limiting their occupancy. “The Board will vigorously enforce the Governor’s newly announced gaming floor occupancy restrictions among gaming licensees, and asks for the industry’s assistance. The more successfully Nevada mitigates the current spread of COVID over the next several weeks, the more likely we are to experience a complete return to current gaming floor occupancy percentages at that point.”
Nevada’s rollback on casino capacity comes as other states have shut down their gaming operations due to resurgent COVID-19 numbers. Last week, Michigan’s governor ordered casinos in Detroit to close for three weeks; Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker closed the state’s 10 casinos and more than 7,000 video lottery terminal locations; and the city of Philadelphia ordered Rivers Casino in Philadelphia to close through Jan. 1.
The president of the Nevada Resort Association, the state’s largest gaming trade organization, said casino operators would comply with mitigation efforts.
“We understand the governor’s actions seek to balance the best interests of public health with the ongoing economic impacts,” said Resort Association President Virginia Valentine. “Like every state in the nation, Nevada faces a grim future if the virus’ spread is not contained and reversed quickly.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
