Update: MGM Resorts International also released a statement on June 24, requiring “all guests and visitors inside public spaces” across its US facilities to wear masks. Those who do not comply will have to leave the property, it added.
Updated mask policy
Effective June 24, Caesars Entertainment Corp. now requires everyone inside its properties to wear a face mask. The only exception to the rule is when eating or drinking.
Previously, Caesars only required staff members and players at table games with no protective barriers to wear face masks as venues reopened amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The updated policy applies to anyone inside any Caesars property, including vendors, contractors, and passersby.
Applicable everywhere
The new mask policy applies to the nine hotel-casinos in Las Vegas. It also applies to casinos operated by Caesars in North Carolina, Arizona, and California. Once casinos in other states reopen, they will also be subject to the new policy. Caesars operates gaming venues in Ontario, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania that have yet to open back up.
The announcement of the new policy comes at a time when the state of Nevada continues to review its response to the pandemic. Just last week, Governor Steve Sisolak asked his team of COVID-19 medical advisors to review enhanced policies regarding face masks.
Caesars Entertainment Corp. CEO Tony Rodio commented in a press release that the company promised to continue to review the latest recommendations and directives, as well as the medical science regarding the virus, and to modify protocols as needed. Rodio added: “The scientific evidence strongly suggests that wearing masks and practicing social distancing may be the most important deterrents to spreading COVID-19 from person to person.”
wearing masks and practicing social distancing may be the most important deterrents”
Caesars plans on taking steps to ensure that everyone inside its properties is wearing a mask. Anyone who refuses to do so will be asked to leave.
Feeling pressure from unions
The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has been pushing for the Gaming Control Board to make face masks mandatory inside hotels and casinos. Members say that employees do not feel safe when around guests who do not have masks on. Images and videos posted online shortly after Nevada casinos reopened earlier this month showed most patrons not wearing face coverings.
In a statement, the union maintained that all other casinos in Nevada need to adopt the same policy, and that the governor should do so as well.
Before Caesars Entertainment announced the new mask mandate, they tried to get players to wear a mask willingly by handing out free money. Though players at table games did have to put on a mask, slots players did not. As a reward for helping slow the spread of COVID-19, employees at the Flamingo, Paris, and Caesars Palace gave $20 in free slots play to random masked slots players over the weekend.