When the novel coronavirus began to spread in Southern California, it brought the region’s casinos to a screeching halt, with players not able to hit the slots or table games for more than two months.
Now, as tribal casinos emerge from their closures, there’s a new normal full of safety precautions.
“Once everything started happening with the severity of COVID, every property really started looking at what can we do different?,” Melissa Asmus, director of operations for Cahuilla Casino Hotel, said.
As guests begin to return to the casinos and their accompanying resorts, they’ll find many changes. Temperature scans and masks or face coverings are required; restaurants are reconfigured; and trips to the pool, or the buffet, won’t be a possibility, at least for the near future.
Readers reached out to us with questions about the casino experience after COVID. We asked the area’s tribal-owned casinos what people wanted to know. Read on to learn more.
Q: Will I have to get temperature checked, and what will that be like?
A: Casinos across Southern California will be doing some form of no-contact temperature scan and that list includes Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage; Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs; Cahuilla Casino Hotel; Casino Pauma, which reopens June 12,; Fantasy Springs Resort Casino; Harrah’s Resort Southern California; Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa; Pala Casino, Spa & Resort; Pechanga Resort Casino; San Manuel Casino, which reopens June 15; Soboba Casino Resort; Spotlight 29 Casino; Tortoise Rock Casino and Valley View Casino & Hotel.
Augustine Casino in Coachella plans to temperature check when it opens as well.
How the temperature checking is done tends to vary by property. Some of the casinos have handheld devices resembling price scanners; others have devices connected to video monitors; and some have walk-through temperature scanners.
Q: Will I have to wear a mask?
A: Yes. It appears that every Southern California casino that has opened so far is requiring both their employees and their visitors to wear face coverings.
Some of the casinos that have been reopening, such as Cahuilla Casino Hotel and Pala Casino, have been providing masks to those who do not have them when they arrive.
Q: Can I smoke?
A: It depends on where you go. Smoking is allowed at some casinos, including Cahuilla Casino Hotel, Casino Pauma, Harrah’s Resort Southern California; Pala Casino, Spa & Resort; San Manuel Casino, Spotlight 29 Casino and Tortoise Rock Casino.
Some casinos have expressly disallowed smoking as part of their initial phase of reopening. The casinos not allowing smoking include Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs; Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa; and Pechanga Resort Casino. Augustine Casino plans to not allow smoking to start as it reopens.
Others, such as Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and Soboba Casino Resort, have mostly disallowed smoking. Fantasy Springs allows smoking in some places outside and Soboba allows it in some designated areas.
Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage doesn’t allow smoking except at its recently reopened Pivat Cigar Lounge and at designated areas outside.
Jeff L. Grubbe, chairman for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, said in an interview last month that smoking and gambling go hand-in-hand and that many of the Agua Caliente Casinos’ visitors love to smoke, but casino officials felt it was safer not to allow it.
“Because this is somewhat of a respiratory-type illness, and if somebody has it really attacks the respiratory (system),” Grubbe said. “And we just wanted to provide the cleanest, safest environment for our guests obviously, but also our employees that are going to be in there on eight hour shifts. We don’t want them to have to deal with the smoke.”
Q: Are things like the pool, spa or fitness center going to be open? If not, when will they open?
A: Southern California casinos kept facilities such as pools, spas and fitness centers closed in the initial phases, but we are starting to see that loosen up a bit.
Pool areas at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage; Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa; Soboba Casino Resort; and Pechanga Resort Casino are all closed.
Harrah’s Resort Southern California reopened part of its pool complex June 8 and Pala Casino, Spa & Resort will reopen its pool area June 12.
Spas at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage; Harrah’s Resort Southern California; Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa; Pala Casino, Spa & Resort; Pechanga Resort Casino; are closed as well.
However, Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage recently reopened the salon at its spa by appointment.
Q: What will my dining experience be like?
A: Expect things to be a lot more spread out. Your food containers and menus may also be disposable.
Pechanga, in a news release, said its restaurants are operating at 50% of their normal seating capacity.
Asmus said Cahuilla, at its new Ribbonwood Grill, has also limited capacity to 50%
At Harrah’s Resort Southern California, tables, chairs and bar stools are arranged for social distancing and menus are disposable.
Both Harrah’s and Soboba Casino Resort say the menus for their restaurants have been made disposable.
Jef Bauer, general manager for Augustine Casino in Coachella, said that chairs and tables have been spread out and all food items will be served in disposable containers and the utensils to eat them with will also be disposable.
San Manuel is offering takeout only, but guests will be able to order from their phones. They will receive a text when the food is ready to be picked up.
Q: When will the buffet reopen and when will that look like?
A: The buffets remain closed across Southern California casinos. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage; Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs; Fantasy Springs Resort Casino; Harrah’s Resort Southern California; Morongo, Casino Resort & Spa; Pala Casino, Spa & Resort; Pechanga Resort Casino; San Manuel Casino; and Spotlight 29 casino all have their buffets closed.
Many casinos in Southern California are not rushing into reopen them.
“It’s a very communal dining experience, with people serving themselves, which doesn’t necessarily, as it currently stands, coexist with the safety mitigation efforts that we’re trying to put out there and a lot of other places are facing similar decisions about their own buffet operations,” Simon Farmer, executive director of marketing for Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa, said.
Farmer said it’s a little too early to tell what the future of buffets is going to be.
“It may not be a reopening of buffets as we’ve traditionally known them,” he said. “There may be some alterations that are required in terms of how guests are served. It may involve us serving them. It may be a completely different concept,” he said.
Bauer said that Augustine Casino will shelve its Cafe 54 Buffet for the time being, with no immediate plans for what they’re going to do with it.
Grubbe said guests may never feel comfortable with the buffet model.
“The buffet may never open again,” Grubbe said. “We might just have to turn it into something else.”
Have a question that isn’t answered here? Email Alex Groves at agroves@scng.com.
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