Roulette Wheel (photo from ebay.com)

Place Your Bet? Las Vegas Casinos back in May

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Amaury Pi-González

If New York is the ‘city that never sleeps’, Las Vegas is the ‘city that never stops gambling’. The two cities have a couple of things in common when it comes to closure, (1) The famous New York gangster Bugsy Siegel was the first to open a huge hotel-casino in the strip. The Flamingo in 1946. Although it was not the first it was the most famous. The first casino ever on the strip was the Rancho Vegas in 1941 a smaller type of gambling establishment. (2) The largest economic fallout for Las Vegas was September 11,2001 when terrorist attacked New York’s Twin Towers.. And for those that like this type of stuff, Las Vegas was also closed (but not this long) when President John F.Kennedy was assassinated in 1963

Because of Covid-19 pandemic, Las Vegas has been closed. But now Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak who closed all nonessential businesses for 30 days including all casinos and later extended the closure to the end of April might be ready to open this next month. Billionaire Steve Wynn owner of Wynn Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas(as well as other locations)says he is ready to re-open. Wynn has continued paying all his salaried, part-time and hourly employees until the 15 of May,which is costing the company approximately $3 million per day or $180 million for two months according to Matt Maddox,CEO of the Wynn company.

As of today Nevada had 3,728 cases of Covid-19 and 155 deaths.They are not on the top ten of cities in this regard.They are one of a bunch of States that are opening-up slowly for business.That is the plan by the medical experts on their three Phases plan made public by Dr.Deborah Birx last week.

The White House appointed world-renowned global health official and physician Ambassador Deborah Birx to the Office of the Vice President to aid in the whole of government response to COVID-19 as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator.She is working with longtime friend and associate Anthony Fauci MD. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases. They have known each other and have worked together for over 40 years for various administrations.

Never in history Las Vegas has been shut down this long. This is a huge economy fallout in the billions of dollars. By far the largest economic fallout for Sin City. Las Vegas has 150,000 hotel rooms(more than any other city in the US) and Las Vegas is the #4 most visited city in North America; only New York #1, Miami #2 and Los Angeles #3 have more visitors each year. Once a little oasis for people traveling between Chicago and Las Vegas,today this desert city is a world destination.

Place Your Bet? No Sports-Books. 2020 could be the worse year in the history for Las Vegas. Even with the opening of some of the Hotels and Casinos as well as other businesses the loses will continue, especially as long as most professional sports leagues remain inactive. Their sports books generate more in revenue, especially March Madness and the Superbowl.

Captain Renault(Claude Rains)to Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) “I’m shocked,shocked,to find there is gambling going on here!” (Casablanca 1942) At Rick’s Café Américain”

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com