LAS VEGAS REOPENS FROM HISTORIC CORONAVIRUS CASINO CLOSURE

The casino coronavirus closure has ended. Cards are being dealt, dice are rolling and slot machines flashed and jingled for the first customers who started gambling again early Thursday in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada.

“The past few months have presented our city with an unprecedented challenge,” said Derek Stevens, owner of two downtown Las Vegas casinos that were shuttered along with all gambling establishments in the state 79 days ago. “We are excited to get our employees back to work and to welcome guests to the entertainment capital of the world.”

Hotel-casinos in suburban Las Vegas were the first to open at 12:01 a.m., to be followed later in the morning by a restart of the iconic Bellagio fountain and reopenings of several resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

Wynn Resorts pushed back its planned opening to daylight hours in a nod to ongoing nighttime protests over George Floyd’s death in Minnesota. Floyd, a black man, died after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck.

There are big hopes for recovery from an unprecedented and expensive shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s a tremendous amount on the line, not only for casinos, but for the community and the state,” said Alan Feldman, a longtime casino executive who is now a fellow at the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “This is an extremely important moment.”