Recently, the Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf has ordered around 13 casinos to shut their doors for more than three weeks. The state’s gaming industry seems to get upset at Governor’s decision. The Governor proclaimed this new order as to mitigate the new surge of Covid-19 spread. He has forced all the state casinos to undergo shutdown from Dec 12 to at least Jan 4.
Casinos in Pennsylvania
Just a few hours before Tim’s latest proclamation, a team of nine representatives from casinos of Pennsylvania sent a written plea requesting him no to shut casinos and to allow them to remain open. In their letter, the representatives narrated that their industry had shown willingness over the previous 10 months to work together with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the Administration. Together they took necessary and valuable measures to confront the further spread of the virus and ensure their employees’ and guest’s safety. They have invested around 10-million-dollars to employ all types of safeguards.
In their plea, the casino representatives have also mentioned that till that day, there was no evidence or case of coronavirus which had spread from a casino. Such evidence was a great indicator of the efficacy of the measures taken by the casinos.
No consideration of the facts that the casino industry is adding up to 1.5-billion dollars in Pennsylvania tax revenue every year and no accusation of casino-spread-coronavirus could stop Tim from closing all the state’s casinos.
The Governor himself tested coronavirus positive in the latest week and have said this measure of suspending all the land-based casinos and other types of indoor gatherings and dining that exceed 10 people will help the state get through this vacation season.
Though many casino advocates think that the Governor’s order may close all the high facility casinos, the illegal slot machines will not share the same fate. It would be ironic and perverse if casinos proving with the maximum level of health security have to close while those illegal operators posing full safety threat keep continuing. They expect the Governor to look into that matter too.
