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Rivers Casino Philadelphia, the only Pennsylvania casino that did not reopen after the three-month coronavirus lockdown, is “hopeful” of reopening next week, a state regulator said Wednesday.

But smoking? That’s no longer permitted indoors at any casino.

Rivers Casino Philadelphia, along with the other 11 casinos in Pennsylvania, will limit customers to 50% of capacity, impose face-mask and hygiene requirements, and limit the number of slot machines in operation and of players at table games, Kevin O’Toole, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, told board members on Wednesday.

Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner, had announced that the casino could reopen July 3 if staff and patrons wore masks, social distancing measures were enforced, and no eating, drinking or smoking were permitted.

Despite the measures, untamed COVID-19 continues to imperil an industry whose central attraction is social interaction. The American Gaming Association announced Wednesday that it is canceling its Global Gaming Expo in October, which draws about 30,000 attendees and exhibitors to Las Vegas.

Rivers Casino Pittsburgh, the sister casino to the Philadelphia property formerly called SugarHouse, was among the first in the state to reopen last month, but it was forced to shut its doors again on July 2 after the Allegheny County Department of Health ordered bars, restaurants and the casino to halt in response to a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in Pittsburgh.

O’Toole said the Pittsburgh casino was “temporarily closed for a one-week period,” but a spokesman for the casino, Jack Horner, said the reopening was indefinite. More than half of the casino’s 1,700 employees who returned to work last month have been affected by the closure, he said. The Rivers casinos are owned by Rush Street Gaming.

Pennsylvania casinos, which shut down poker rooms and buffets when they reopened after the lockdown, last week also implemented one of the more dramatic COVID-19 countermeasures: A temporary halt to all smoking indoors. New Jersey had enacted a similar ban as a condition to reopening Atlantic City casinos on July 2.

O’Toole said some casinos are offering an open-air area outside the casino for smokers, as long as they also practice social distancing.

The Clean Indoor Air Act of 2008 prohibits smoking in public places except for casinos, drinking establishments, cigar bars, and private clubs. The law requires at least half of the space in a casino be designated nonsmoking. The industry fought to allow smoking in casinos because of its strong association to gambling; previous efforts to ban smoking in casinos in other states led to a dramatic decline in wagering and tax revenue.

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©2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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When Rivers Casino Philadelphia reopened its doors in July after months of coronavirus-related shutdowns, its returning employees had to make some adjustments.

For one, the salaried workers took 15% pay cuts. And everyone was given medical instructions that some industry experts deemed unusual: Employees who think they might have COVID-19 must immediately alert the casino’s human resources department.

But as for telling their immediate supervisors, workers were only supposed to disclose that they wouldn’t be coming in.

“Do NOT share ANY FURTHER details about the reason for your absence,” the Daily COVID-19 Self Assessment instructions read.

“We’ve had a lot of no shows, and it raises suspicions of why hasn’t management come out and said anything,” one employee told The Inquirer.

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Employees who have returned to the Fishtown casino since July 17 say that mandated secrecy is emblematic of the way management has run Rivers this summer. A group of current and recently resigned workers spoke to The Inquirer about their fears of getting infected when they have been forced to rely on rumors and whispers for their personal safety and that of their families.

They say that the casino’s mandates about how to properly clean surfaces are inconsistent, and often ignored. So is the requirement that customers must wear masks, with some dealers and supervisors not requiring gamblers to keep their face coverings on.

Those issues have frustrated these longtime employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearful of losing their jobs or facing reprisal.

Rivers Casino salaried staff facing a coronavirus pay cut“You got players walking around with masks on their necks, on their chin,” said one table games dealer. “The supervisors are afraid of the players. They haven’t been trained properly, and they’re afraid to say something.”

In recent weeks, as more and more dealers and other staff started to ask for days off amid this uncertainty, Rivers has been employing new strategies. Management issued a survey in late August, asking employees why so many of them were “calling out” and what would motivate them to keep coming to work. This week, Rivers announced a free, new “dealer school” to recruit new workers, and a sign-on bonus for experienced dealers joining the casino on a bank of the Delaware River that brought in $315 million in revenue last year.

“I don’t blame any of the management or my coworkers for why things were so bad — my coworkers and managers were some of the best people I worked for,” said another dealer. 'I blame the company. I blame the executives. I blame the city officials that allowed this to be open.

“I know people want to return to normalcy, but at what cost?” the dealer added.

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Representatives from Rivers, operated by Rush Street Gaming, declined to be interviewed for this story. They instead issued a statement disputing the employees’ complaints, saying the number of call-outs has been decreasing. The company, which operates similarly named casinos in upstate New York, Iowa and Pittsburgh, said that it has hired additional cleaners to disinfect the facility and installed new air filters to help combat the virus.

“If any cases have potential for impact on Team Members or guests, they are notified accordingly,” Rivers management said in a statement. “Team Members with specific concerns are encouraged to speak with their Team Leaders. Our goal is to provide the safest possible environment and evolve as new information becomes available.”

The casino declined to provide specific numbers of positive COVID-19 cases among its staff. For their own privacy, employees are encouraged to talk only to their doctors or the casino’s state-appointed Pandemic Safety Officer, a casino spokesperson said.

New Jersey’s restaurants and casinos do the math on reopening indoorsEmployees at Rivers aren’t alone in not knowing if, or how badly, the virus has spread through their coworkers.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Health said that casinos licensed by the state are not required to report positive coronavirus cases among their employees. Some businesses, such as nursing homes and universities, are. Tallies of coronavirus cases are kept by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Board spokesperson Doug Harbach said that there have been 40 positive COVID-19 cases across the state’s 12 casinos since the state allowed them to reopen in June. Harbach declined to provide specific numbers for Rivers or any casino.

“The city health board inspected Rivers Philadelphia and found that the casino met and exceeded the standards for COVID safety,” Harbach said in a recent interview.

Management at Rivers echoed this, saying that the casino “follows best practices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and meets or exceeds all COVID-19 Casino Reopening Protocols” from the state Gaming Control Board.

Pa. casino revenues return to pre-pandemic levels, but online gambling soarsBut according to city health officials, their visit to Rivers just before reopening was less an inspection than a walk through while recommending best practices for keeping gamblers and staff safe.

James Garrow, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Public Health, said department workers suggested to casino managers how far apart to seat players and what kind of barriers to erect, among other recommendations. It was not, he said, a formal, point-by-point inspection.

“We haven’t inspected any facility to provide them with a thumbs up on opening,” Garrow said in a statement.

But returning employees complain that most of the visits, either by the city or casino executives, have been during the day, when the number of patrons has been moderate. More safety issues have cropped up during the overnight shifts, when the bulk of gamblers enter Rivers, according to one supervisor who spoke with The Inquirer.

Less than half of Philadelphians are wearing masks properly, study findsEmployees also complain of shortages of cleaning supply or PPE, with one former employee saying that he had to fill out a formal request to get a pair of disposable gloves. In the first few days after the casino reopened, supply closets were stocked with disinfectants approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to be effective in killing the coronavirus, according to the supervisor and other employees.

Those supplies were quickly replaced, the supervisor said, with regular disinfectant wipes. When the supervisor spoke with a member of upper management about the switch, she was told it was done as a cost-saving measure.

Management disputes this characterization, saying that no supplies have ever been substituted, and that everything provided to the employees to use has been approved by the EPA. Photos of some of those supplies, shared with the Inquirer, show that none of them are included on the EPA’s approved list of disinfectants effective against COVID-19.

Other workers complained of combative night-shift guests who ignore calls to stop crowding around tables and argue with dealers about keeping their masks on.

One employee was so discouraged by this that he resigned in August.

“I had issues with certain managers reverting back to old rules, like if a player spends enough money, we don’t say anything to them. That bothered me,” he said. “And other situations where I saw managers who were just oblivious, and I wanted something done.”

Rivers is not unionized, and workers say they’ve had little opportunity to field their complaints.

Elsewhere, however, labor representatives at casinos with unions says re-openings have gone smoothly and continue to operate without issue.

Rivers Casino Philadelphia

C. Robert McDevitt, president of Unite Here Local 54 in Atlantic City, said the nine casinos his union works with — including Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester — have instituted “vigorous contact tracing” among employees. He said news of the edict by Rivers to limit the sharing of information about positive COVID cases was “shocking.”

“You should tell your coworkers if you work with them,' McDevitt said. 'It’s part of being a responsible adult.”

At Rivers, some workers are trapped between their need to collect a paycheck and concerns about personal safety. A few said they wish the furlough was never lifted.

“This is not something to be messed with,' said one longtime employee, who said he’s considering leaving. 'I don’t want to give this to my family. I don’t feel safe, and I know a lot of other employees don’t either.”

“There’s a lot of politics involved, for a lot of money they’re bringing in,” he added. “The fact that I can’t go to the Phillies game … but these people can come in and gamble? It’s just to make the city money.”

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©2020 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.inquirer.com

Rivers Casino Philadelphia New Years Eve Party

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