Three properties owned by Eldorado Resorts; Inc. reopened this Monday in Louisiana. The properties will follow sanitizing protocols and keep the number of customers per table restricted.

Casinos opened

Eldorado opened its three casinos on Monday- Eldorado Shreveport, Belle of Baton Rouge, and Isle of Capri Lake Charles. All properties were closed since March 16 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The president and chief operating officer of Eldorado Resorts, Anthony Carano, said that their priority is to focus on the health and safety of their guests as well as staff.

He added,

“We have been working very hard over the last two months to prepare for the reopening of our casinos and we look forward to providing the outstanding service and hospitality experiences Eldorado is known for in a safe manner.”

The firm recently detailed its health and safety precautions on its website. The number of players will be limited on the casino floor. There will only be six players on the craps table, four on the roulette table, and three on the blackjack table. The casino will also not allow spectators to crowd around the tables to watch a game. The premises will also go through frequent sanitization. Dealers will be giving each customer hand sanitizer when they arrive on the table. The property will also feature numerous sanitizing stations.

Reopening at 50% capacity

A week ago, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced that the state will allow casinos to be reopened on Friday, May 15. The date was then pushed to Monday. The properties need to get permission from the Louisiana Gaming Control Board before they can reopen. Originally, casinos were supposed to open at 25% capacity. However, it was later decided to increase the capacity to 50% because the casinos would not be able to generate any revenue with any lesser capacity. All of the 19 casinos in Louisiana were concerned that 1/4^th capacity will not make a reopening feasible for their properties.

Louisiana Casino Association’s executive director Wade Duty said, “I don’t want to seem ungrateful but if we can only service 25% of the positions, it really impacts the number of people who get called back to work.”

This order doesn’t mean that all casinos in the state can reopen. For instance, the city of New Orleans is still not permitting its casinos to open their doors. Bossier City-based DiamondJacks Casino & Hotel has decided to shutdown because of the financial rot it faced due to COVID-19.