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Local gaming giant Station Casinos released a plan to phase in casino openings once Gov. Steve Sisolak and the Nevada Gaming Control Board allows resorts across the state to reopen.
“When we are permitted to reopen, we don’t know what business will look like, other than knowing that business levels will be lower as a result of this unprecedented crisis,” Frank Fertitta III, the chairman and CEO of Station Casinos, says in a memo to staff.
Red Rock Casino in Summerlin, Green Valley Ranch and Sunset Station in Henderson, Santa Fe Station in Centennial, Boulder Station on the eastside, and Palace Station west of the Strip, as well as six Wildfire properties, will open first.
Station Casinos says it will assess when Fiesta Henderson, Fiesta Rancho, Texas Station, and the Palms will reopen.
But the gaming company says it will start laying off full-time staff at the four properties that won’t immediately reopen.
The company continued to pay full-time staff members through May 16. It says the company will pay health insurance premiums through September. Sisolak ordered nonessential businesses including casinos to close on March 17.
Team members who are not being laid off will be paid through May 31.
Sisolak extended Nevada’s stay-at-home order through May 15 and says that businesses will reopen in phases. Casinos across the state will reopen in phase three or four of his plan.
Sisolak wants for more testing of people to find out if they do indeed have COVID-19 and expanded tracing capacity to find out how patients contracted the disease. In order to even consider reopening Nevada, Sisolak wants to see a downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations over a 14-day period.
Once his team indicates that COVID-19 cases are falling, he says Nevada can move into phase one of his plan, where individuals should still avoid gathering in groups of 10 or more and should continue to minimize unnecessary travel and wear face covers in public. Dine-in restaurants are among the businesses that will be able to reopen at limited capacities in phase one.
• Gov. Steve Sisolak Extends Stay-at-Home Order in Nevada Through May 15 [ELV]
• How Coronavirus Is Affecting Las Vegas Food and Restaurants [ELV]
