Las Vegas Mayor: Casino Closures ‘Total Insanity’

With more than 20 percent of Nevada’s workforce filing for unemployment in the past month, the mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, called the closure of businesses in the gaming capital of America “total insanity.”

“This shutdown has become one of total insanity in my opinion, for there is no backup of data as to why we are shut down from the start, no plan in place how to move through the shutdown or how even to come out of it,” Goodman said.

“Being closed is killing us already,” she added.

In the last week 5.245 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time. That brings the four-week total to 22 million. The American Gaming Association estimates that 1.8 million casino jobs are in jeopardy of being lost.

Since Nevada governor Steve Sisolak enacted a 30-day shutdown on April 1, Goodman has called for it to be shortened. The mayor is now calling for businesses to be allowed to reopen throughout Nevada.

“We cannot keep our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away,” she said. “We’re adults with brains who can know what to do to wash our hands, to take all precautions not to spread this disease.”

“But let me tell you: with a population of 3.2 million living in Nevada, those whom we lost represent less than a half of one percent of our population, which has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique,” she said.

Nevada had officially reported 137 deaths statewide as of April 16.

Nevada casinos raked in $1.042 billion in gross gaming revenue in February, the last full month of gaming revenue for at least the immediate future. Traffic at online casino offerings has surged during the lockdown, but in no way can replace the land based revenue and the jobs it supports.

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