THE NEXT TIME patrons walk into a Massachusetts casino, they may have their temperature checked at the door and be handed a facemask. When a patron sits down at the blackjack table, the chairs next to them will be empty, and a plexiglass shield could separate them from the dealer.
When Massachusetts casinos reopen – and it will not be before June at the earliest – they will look very different than they did before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered them.
Brian Gullbrants, president of Encore Boston Harbor, said while customer service is typically at the forefront of everything the casino does, “This is one time in history I believe health and safety trump everything.”
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to extend their order shuttering the state’s casinos until at least June 1. But the operators of all three of the state’s casinos – Encore in Everett, MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville — indicated that they are not expecting to open that soon.
Gov. Charlie Baker plans to release details of his phased plan for reopening the state’s economy on Monday. Gullbrants told the Gaming Commission, “By no means do we believe we should be in one of the earliest phases.”
Operators of all three casinos asked the commission for a lead time of 10 to 14 days after the decision is made regarding a reopening date to give them time to prepare the facility and retrain staff. The casino operators all said they hope to learn from their experiences reopening casinos earlier in other jurisdictions, whether in Macau or elsewhere in the US.
All three casinos submitted preliminary drafts of health and safety plans to the Gaming Commission, although the companies all stressed that the plans will change in accordance with new federal and state health guidelines and based on experiences elsewhere.
“This is uncharted territory for all of us,” said Lance George, vice president and general manager of Plainridge Park Casino. “There will be surprises and we will react swiftly and quickly.”
All the plans envision a casino experience that will feel and look different than what gamblers are used to.
Encore Boston Harbor plans to take the temperature of every employee and guest entering the facility using a non-touch thermal camera. Anyone with a temperature over 100.4 degrees will not be allowed in. Hotel guests with a fever will be asked to leave. Plainridge Park Casino will have a similar temperature screen.
MGM Springfield’s plan involves screening employees’ temperatures and asking guests to “self-screen” at home and not visit if they are sick or have been exposed to COVID-19.
In Nevada, Wynn Resorts – the parent company of Encore – is offering all employees COVID-19 tests before they return to work, but Gullbrants said that kind of testing capacity does not yet exist in Massachusetts.
At all three locations, all casino employees will wear masks. Some will wear gloves. Visitors will be urged to wear masks, and free masks will be given to any guest who needs one. Visitors can be asked to pull down their masks when they show identification to enter a gambling floor or buy alcohol.
The casinos will cut their capacity in order to keep people further apart, such as by turning off every other slot machine and removing the chairs. Plainridge Park Casino, which is exclusively a slots parlor, expects to go from having capacity for 1,330 players to 550.
Gaming tables will also have fewer players. An Encore gaming table will have three players if there are no plexiglass shields, or four players if there are plexiglass shields separating them, rather than the current setup of six players plus the dealer.
All the casinos will have available hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and places to wash hands. Slot machines will be wiped down between players, dealers will sanitize equipment when they come to a table, and each time a player leaves a table, anything they touched will be cleaned.
Areas with lines will be marked to maintain an appropriate distance between patrons.
Customers who do not abide by social distancing guidelines could be ejected.
Not all services will reopen day one. Poker tables will probably remain closed for some time. Valet parking will be eliminated.
The casinos also operate services like restaurants, which will have to adjust. Fancy menus will be replaced with disposable menus and with QR codes, so a patron can pull up a menu on their phone. Some restaurants will text patrons when their table is ready, to eliminate waiting at the front of the restaurant. Condiments will be dispensed in single-use containers. Lounge seating will be removed, and barstools placed further apart.
Customers will be allowed to use mobile apps to pay bills. Hotel guests at Encore Boston Harbor will no longer be able to get newspapers delivered or use self-serve ice machines. Encore’s spa will remain closed and its salon won’t offer makeup services. MGM is instituting a process that will let customers check in to the hotel through their phone and get a digital door key on a mobile app.
Plainridge Park also operates live harness racing, and a plan is still being worked out to reopen the track. George said if racing restarts before the slots parlor, it would likely be done without spectators.
Despite national supply chain shortages, the casinos say they have managed to buy supplies. Encore Boston Harbor has stockpiled 1.9 million surgical masks, 70 disinfectant wipe dispensers, 40 hand sanitizer dispensers, and 47 electrostatic guns used to dispense a surface cleaner. Gullbrants said it has not been easy to find hand sanitizer and wipes but “we now have trucks of it in North America.” The other two casino operators said their companies have also been stockpiling masks and disinfectant, although they continue to search for wipes.
None of the casino operators would commit to whether they plan to reopen as 24-hour operations, saying they want to look at the experiences of casinos elsewhere in the country. Gullbrants said Encore is considering opening four days a week rather than seven.
