Casinos Reopening

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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by veteran+ »

I guess it depends on where you live.

:-)
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by Brian Lutz »

Tulalip Casino (a few miles from where I live) reopened on Tuesday, including some of the restaurants and bars inside the property (not sure if the buffet is included.) Hours and capacity are limited, masks are required for all guests and staff, and smoking doesn't seem to be completely banned, but isn't allowed while playing table games. The tribal casinos seem to be basically the only places left in Washington that allow indoor smoking at this point. Quil Ceda Creek Casino (which is also run by the Tulalip tribe) is reopening under similar conditions to the Tulalip Casino.

Angel of the Winds (another tribal casino a few miles further north on I-5) reopened last week, and upon reopening has now banned indoor smoking. They are limiting capacity to 50%, which means that guests have to use a virtual queue to enter and may have to wait. They are also not running most table games currently (with the exception of Baccarat which can presumably be done without the guests touching cards.) They also didn't initially reopen their bowling alley, but will be doing so today.

Reopening info from their websites:

Tulalip: https://www.tulalipresortcasino.com/Hom ... irusUpdate
Angel of the Winds: https://www.angelofthewinds.com/reopeni ... fb349-e6cb
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: May 28th, 2020, 5:18 pm Well smoking has not been banned in restaurants in about a dozen states. Obviously individual restaurants are free to have whatever policies they want. You must not travel to rural OK or MO very often where "smoking or non" is still a question in non-chain restaurants in smaller towns...
That wasn't my point. In places where you have a level playing field where all businesses in a certain category (for instance bars or restaurants) have to honor no-smoking laws there is no evidence to support that business declined after the laws were enacted.

Of course if you are near a state line where you have legal smoking allowed on one side and not the other some smokers will go to the businesses on the other side.

The answer is simple, though. The danger of first and second hand smoke are well know and scientifically proven. Smoking in public places should be banned on a federal level.
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by Super S »

Ilani, which is the closest to the Portland area, has reopened:

https://tdn.com/news/ilani-casino-reope ... -top-story

Temperatures are taken using a thermal imaging scanner, and masks are required. It's also all non-smoking, for now anyway.

I feel uncomfortable though with people running around inside a casino wearing masks regardless of what kind of checks they are doing at the door.
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: May 29th, 2020, 2:44 pm

The answer is simple, though. The danger of first and second hand smoke are well know and scientifically proven. Smoking in public places should be banned on a federal level.
I think we will get there. But there is still a lot of smoking in certain geographical places in the US. I am just glad there are a lot fewer people smoking now than, say, 10 years ago. Between smoke free airports, smoke free college campuses, etc., it is getting harder and harder to smoke. But we still have airports with smoking rooms in various places in the US, etc.

The casino business is moving more and more toward non gaming activities like entertainment, enhanced dining, better hotels, etc. For me the smoke ruins the casinos. I don't gamble but I may be interested in some of their other offerings. Because you have to deal with smoke in order to partake in their other offerings, I simply don't go to casinos for anything unless I am forced to (group trainings or similar) or can somehow avoid the casino floor entirely (there is one casino with a bowling alley here where you can do that if you go in the right entrance).

On the contrary, people have tried smoke free bars and casinos over the years in NV and the casinos have a tract record: 100% failure. The results with bars are more mixed but most still allow smoking so I think customer demand again dictates.

I remember 15 years ago getting opaque hotels on Priceline or Hotwire where you get whatever room they have left and one of the biggest fears I had was getting stuck with "the smoking room." I was lucky and it never happened. Though I've stayed in a few casinos where it may as well have been called a smoking room because of how it smelled, even though it wasn't labeled as such. Because there were a lot more smoking rooms in hotels 10-15 years ago than there are now. Now many hotels are smoke free. Customer demand has changed and will keep changing and it will continue to phase out smoking more and more.

There are a few casinos/truck stops in my area with gas stations. To access the bathrooms you have to walk across the closed casino floor. These casinos have been closed for two months now and when you walk through there it still smells like smoke. Not nearly as powerful as when there are dozens of people inside smoking, but the smell just does not go away. It is truly awful. And sadly this may be another reason why the casinos push to keep allowing smoking: the customer expectation of a smoke free casino would require them to practically start over with a fresh new building.
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by Super S »

Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester, WA (south of Olympia) has reopened:

http://www.chronline.com/business/lucky ... 68470.html

This casino does not appear to be taking the temperature of guests, and is still allowing smoking "in designated areas" which I am not sure if this is the existing smoking/non-smoking area or something else. They are, however, taking photos of every person entering, and limiting capacity.

I have not visited any casino since the reopenings started, and probably won't be for some time yet.
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Re: Casinos Reopening

Post by submariner »

Locking this thread. Casinos are not retail.
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