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Vegas Burning Through Millions
Casino operators in Las Vegas are waiting to hear when they will be able to reopen after a shutdown due to a coronavirus outbreak. Today, millions of dollars are burned and left without income: a Las Vegas casino has just over a month to stay afloat because of an ordered closure. After earning more than half a million dollars in revenue following an order to shut down operations this month, their owners have just under five months to stay afloat, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NVGA).
Las Vegas Employees Laid Off
Las Vegas Sands is the only major casino in Nevada to have employees on the payroll, while most casinos in the state have laid off or laid-off employees. MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, which operates 10 hotels on Las Nevada Boulevard, paid their employees only for the first two weeks after the closure. An estimated 206,000 casino employees are unemployed, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NVGA), and more than half of them work in the Sands.
A third group decided to issue temporary redundancies at the start of the closure. The casino companies and Las Vegas Sands said their workers would be paid in full for two months, while others, such as Eldorado Resorts, paid a month and then angered all their workers. Selected casinos have reopened, but the 30-day closure period has been shortened, and selected casinos will reopen at a later date, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NVGA) .Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman also said it was a protection of workers, not a political stunt.
A Slow Vegas Come Back
For heaven’s sake, “she said at a City Council meeting in April, saying the comeback would be long, hard and painful. The Nevada Gaming Control Board, which does not include the famed Las Vegas Strip, which is within the city limits, called the decision to close the area’s resorts and casinos “total madness.” It has already killed us, it has killed those who have worked so hard to build this great city, this beautiful city and this amazing resort. “It’s a great opportunity for us to get back on track,” said John D’Agostino, a former casino manager.
Ireland said he wished his employer had paid him during the shutdown, but he disagrees with the mayor’s call to reopen Las Vegas. Ireland said he wished his employers had paid for his vacation time and other benefits during a shutdown over the past two years. He disagreed with the mayor’s call to reopen Las Vegas casinos and hotels.
One of the problems for the city of Las Vegas is that the strip is not in Las Vegas, but in an unincorporated township called Paradise. The syndicate used the Clark County Commissioners to launch a legal maneuver to organize the Las Vegas Strip’s real estate into an “unincorporated township” called “Paradise,” and there is no legal requirement that it be annexed. A union representing more than 1,000 casino and hotel workers has called on Nevada politicians to condemn Goodman at a time when the state is considering how to reopen in a way that ensures worker safety.
The Las Vegas mayor said he hoped bars and restaurants would remain open, but Sisolak’s unprecedented order came just as many Las Vegas casinos were closing their doors altogether. Hundreds of Nevadans gathered outside the state capital to protest the reopening of Nevada so they can return to work. The president of Nevada, the second – beating heart of gambling – has ordered the closure of all casinos, hotels and other businesses on the Las Vegas Strip, except the Strip itself, from Monday to Tuesday in Vegas.
MGM Losing Millions a Day
Don Leadbeter, a waiter at the MGM Grand, has participated in past strike votes and has worked in Las Vegas for more than 30 years, most recently two years. He has already said this week’s deliberate casino closures could be the biggest strike since the legalization of gambling in Las Vegas in 1931.
The Las Vegas Strip generated $18.7 billion in revenue last year, nearly two-thirds of which came from casinos. Clark County casinos generated 34.3 percent of resort revenue, and 27.2 percent came from hotel rooms, said Michael J. Miller, president and CEO of Vegas, a casino research firm based in Applied Analysis.
For example, the Clark County Board of Supervisors lists profits as “gains” and losses in Las Vegas as losses. If casinos in the state of Nevada, a state with a higher tax rate than the federal government, are considered “winners,” they lose.
Could a 2nd Vegas Shutdown Be Looming
The Las Vegas-based company, which owns the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, MGM Resorts International Casino and the hotel, has not said how operations in the Nevada metropolitan area will be affected. Venetian and Palazzo casinos, which are operated by Las Vegas Sands, have said they are keeping their properties open and are not considering layoffs. Caesars Entertainment, Cosmopolitan and MGM Resorts have been charging parking fees since their casinos closed. While most of the Vegas resorts that have reopened continue to charge fees, Sahara and Las Vegas are a notable exception.
How long can Las Vegas casino companies survive the COVID-19 shutdown?
Analysts estimate that MGM burns more than $1.5 billion in gaming revenue a day, and that other casino groups are similarly harmed. Penn, which operates Tropicana Las Vegas and M Resort locally, spends $6.4 million a day during the shutdown. Red Rock Resorts spends $1.7 million a day, Golden Entertainment spends between $2.2 million and $3.1 million a day in Macau and $0.8 million on the Strip, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
People will gather in Las Vegas again and players from all over the United States will enjoy the playgrounds, gaming tables, casinos and other gaming options. Once downtown casino hotels are back online, travelers will turn their attention to the glitzy casino resorts known around the world. There are numerous casinos and luxury resorts along the Las Vegas Strip, but none is as crowded as Caesars Palace and Flamingo.
It is hard to imagine that the world’s gambling capital will stop gambling and betting-related pastimes – but closing casinos could spell the end of the Las Vegas economy and labor market, which is heavily dependent on tourism, entertainment and gambling industries. Nevada is the only state to have temporarily shut down its gambling industry, although the closures could be the first of their kind in the US in more than a decade. It has closed casinos in New York, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.