Sneak peek: Pittsburgh's Rivers Casino set to reopen after 'eerie' 3-month closure
After nearly 90 days of darkness, the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore will open again Tuesday, though the floor will look a little different and be a lot less crowded.
Shuttered since March because of the state’s coronavirus pandemic response, casinos in areas that have reached the green phase of the state’s tiered reopening plan will have to balance a host of safety protocols with making things as seamless and comfortable as possible for patrons.
“We think it’s important at some point to get these casinos functioning,” said Douglas Harbach, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. “Certainly, safety is the biggest issue, but you also have an industry where thousands of people are out of work, and they’re now getting to come back to work.”
Rivers Casino will operate 24/7 only on weekends for the time being, from 9 a.m. Friday through 4 a.m Monday. During the week, the casino will close from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. for cleaning.
We are ready Pittsburgh! Join us Tuesday, June 9th at 9am for our reopening! We are very excited to welcome you back to Rivers Casino! Planning your next trip? Visit https://t.co/LnQYBcDsoi for details.
Gambling Problem? Call 1800Gambler pic.twitter.com/wLxeInuwoN— Rivers Casino Pittsburgh (@WinBigRivers) June 8, 2020
The past three months inside the casino — without neon lights, without blinking slot machines, without noise and smoke and clinking glassware — have been weird, said Rivers General Manager Bill Keena.
“It was eerie,” Keena said. “It was a very surreal type of situation.”
Management and employees are ready to come back, he said. About 1,000 employees will return to work as the casino opens at 50% capacity. Keena said the gaming floor’s capacity is about 9,000, meaning it will be limited to 4,500 for now.
Patrons will find every other seat removed from slot machines to create adequate distance between them. Plexiglass dividers have been added between the most popular machines as well as in front of all restaurants and between betting kiosks, sportsbook windows, the cashiers’ counter and the Rush Rewards desk.
Blackjack tables will be limited to three players. Roulette will be limited to four, and craps will be limited to six.
Players who bring chips with them will have to exchange them for sterilized chips. In anticipation of reopening, more than 220,000 chips have been cleaned and sanitized, Keena said, and there are 140 new sanitation stations with hand sanitizer and wipes.
Keena said patrons will be encouraged to wipe down the machines they use before and after or to flag down a team member to do so for them.
The @WinBigRivers Casino reopens tomorrow, though it’s going to look different — and a lot less shoulder-to-shoulder. Black Jack tables will be limited to three people. Every other chair at slot machines have been removed. There’s plexiglass between the most popular machines. pic.twitter.com/0nHnZXfjj2
— Megan Guza (@meganguzaTrib) June 8, 2020
Masks will be required, though patrons can take them off for eating, drinking and smoking.
Turning a normally packed casino into a socially distant one wasn’t easy, Kenna said.
“What you see here on the casino floor — there’s more of it going on behind the scenes,” he said.
From the garage to the entrances where there will likely be lines, a plan had to be made for all of it. Even employee breaks had to be shuffled and rescheduled so as not to pack the employee dining room.
Harbach also pointed to the revenue lost by casino closures across the state, noting the industry generates “somewhere north of $100 million a year just in tax revenue.”
Amid the pandemic-related closures, overall gaming revenue statewide was down 84% in April compared to April 2019, according to the Gaming Control Board. Tax revenue from all forms of gaming in April 2020 was $18,334,503.
Online slot-machine revenue jumped when the lockdown struck, more than doubling from nearly $13 million in March to more than $27 million in April.
For a list of questions and answers regarding the reopening, visit riverscasino.com/pittsburgh/update
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