Casino Reopening?


Which one is real and which one is plastic? 

As the province is on the eve of Phase 2, there is a significant sector of the population which is already waiting for Phase 3 no earlier than June 21.  Phase 3 is when casinos can re-open.  I think there is a few bread crumbs that indicate that "can" may not equate to "will"

On Friday, CEO of Liquor and Lotteries updated the province.  One would think he would be sounding the alarms of how much revenue is being missed by the casinos being closed.  Truckloads of revenue that are needing to fund provincial problems.  Of course, I wasn't there so all I have to rely on is the news coverage. Instead of concentrating of revenue, the CEO was talking about the tremendous savings to the province from not paying salaries of casino employees. 

Yesterday, Saturday, the Casinos of Winnipeg put out an interesting tweet.  Now, the Casinos of Winnipeg have been maintaining a presence on twitter throughout the pandemic.  It has usually been announcing when things that have been cancelled have been rescheduled or looking back at events in the past and celebrating the memory.  They have also been heavily promoting Play Now, which continues to create revenue.  This particular tweet was "FAQ about Club Card Points".  If you read the entire tweet, you immediately note a different tone.  There is no longer the excitement of what it is going to be like when things are re-opened.  Part of the tone likely was because they were responding to questions where the answer was inherently obvious.  Part there was one answer that I think was very telling.  It said, without emotion, that they are reviewing all processes and practices in their operations and appropriate changes will be made. 

It spoke volumes to me.  The casino experience in Winnipeg will be different for the foreseeable future.  I am thinking they will only open one casino (McPhillips) at a time for predetermined evaluation periods.  Food service won't come back for a while.  Shark Club will be the last to re-open and may wait until after hockey returns. 

We thought that the Casinos would never close.  They did.  I have a bad feeling about poker.  Many poker players have self-identified that they will change their poker experience to online only.  I have heard rumours that some people have been having home games once the restriction on size of gatherings raised to 25.  One woman that has hosted such a game says she will never do it again.  She thought she was doing people a favour but players were complaining that there was not enough food and drink provided.  She also had to mediate fights about really nothing.  She experienced on a very small scale what the Regent Poker Room experiences regularly. 

I think it is going to be a long road back for poker, but, as usual, player behavior will play a significant role.  I think the casino experience will become more LEAN.  That means the casino will be working smarter not harder.  They will use a lot of cost/benefit analysis.  I think the only hope for poker to return is for players to self-regulate each other.  Major sports can exist without officials in our communities.  Hopefully, poker players can understand their role in ensuring a good experience, not only for us, but for the casino. 

We all need to remember that just because Casinos may be open no earlier than June 21, that doesn't mean they will re-open on that day.  They may take more time and open on a very limited basis.  Yesterday, there was a number of people protesting in Winnipeg that their rights and freedoms were taken away by the State of Emergency.  I am disappointed I saw so many people on the news spouting this crap.  I am even disappointed that some media organization sought to report this as news.  One thing that casino patrons may have to come to terms with is that visiting a casino is not a right that is guaranteed to us. 

The casino refers to patrons as "guests".  When we go into someone's home or business, we must be responsible guests.

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