Casinos Have a Plan to Reopen Post Coronavirus

For anyone who's missed the thrill of gambling, whether it be at a Native American casino near your or one in one of the major destination gambling cities like Las Vegas or Atlantic City, the good news is that it's all starting to come back. Sure, it's coming back in stages, and it's doing so with all sorts of restrictions that will likely turn your fun evening out into a “fun” evening of following constant, shifting, and occasionally contradictory rules, but it's coming back. This is due in no small part to a series of new plans from the casinos themselves, who would rather their target market not catch a potentially deadly disease on site.

Sometimes Strange, Always Operational

For Century Casinos NASDAQ: CNTY, the new security measures put in place are anything but unobtrusive. They start right at the entry point of two of the company's casinos in Missouri, featuring wireless temperature checks; customers who walk in with temperatures over 100.4 degrees—not exactly difficult in Missouri in June—are given “secondary screenings,” like in airports. Those who maintain that temperature on further screening is refused entry.

Those who are wearing face masks—the necessity of which the World Health Organization (WHO) has been vacillating over for the last several weeks now—will be required to briefly lower them to be identified by security cameras near the entrance. Then, once players actually enter the building, a series of clear barriers await them. Made of Plexiglas or similar material, the barriers are designed to put social distancing in place even at the tables or at slot machines.

Other layout changes have also stepped in; Caesars Enterainment NASDAQ: CZR is placing deliberate roadblocks, using “tables or other obstructions” on dance floors to forcibly space people out. Security teams are now tasked with social distancing requirement watches, forcibly breaking up gathered clusters.

A Diminished Experience

While it will be possible to fork over cash at play, many of the casinos' amenities are closed, at least for now.  Those hoping for a buffet pass—or at least a sit-down dinner in a nice steakhouse-style restaurant or similar—will be disappointed; kitchens are staying closed except for a handful of options, mostly pre-packaged foods. In perhaps the biggest punch to the entire casino experience, bars are mostly gone; customers will be able to order drinks, though they will be dispensed into single-use cups.

This last represents one of the biggest pivots in the casino industry, and one that may ultimately leave it out of the loop for recovery; the combination of pent-up demand for human contact following the enforced lockdowns of coronavirus followed by access to alcohol may represent a disaster waiting to happen.

Such disaster was seen in South Korea, where nightclubs and similar entertainment venues became connected to flare-ups of coronavirus cases following the country's own reduction of stay-at-home orders. With alcohol also found to diminish immune system response, even those who might not ordinarily have caught the disease might catch it after a few drinks.

If You Open It, Kind Of, Will They Come?

It's the rhetorical question from “Field of Dreams” that's started thousands of thought experiments, but it's seldom invalid. The American Gaming Association's president and CEO Bill Miller calls what's going on “a reimagined casino experience,” but will players actually go along with this notion?

The biggest problem with this notion is that, while the process has certainly been “reimagined” and is more “responsible” and all sorts of other buzzwords designed to keep lawyers at bay, what's been forgotten here is an actual reason to go along with this. While it's certainly true that people who have been locked up for months are desperate to get out and actually have some fun, this kind of highly-regimented “reimagined casino experience” seems about as far from fun as, say, hopscotch: too many rules, too little payoff. Certainly for some, the phrase “better than nothing” will apply, but for a good chunk of players, the phrase “but only just” will likely follow, and keep quite a few off the gaming floor for a while. Hobson's choices don't tend to be greeted enthusiastically.

This is a bad idea. There's no other way to put it. However, it's also the only idea they can have, for now. The “reimagined casino experience” looks less like fun and more like a nightmare of restrictions and precluded possibilities. The diehards desperate for a hand of poker that isn't staged online may go along with it, but until the “reimagined” part gets thrown out, don't look for casinos to come back in any appreciable fashion.