Casinos in Atlantic City have continued to receive good news this week. Earlier in the week, Governor Phil Murphy announced that indoor dining could begin again on Friday at 25% capacity. Now, his office has said that beverage service can start again as well as smoking among patrons. Casinos were unclear with the indoor dining announcement if they could provide beverage service as well. Now, they are allowed to do so, but with restrictions, as the coronavirus is still a problem.
Bring On The Drinks!
Governor Murphy’s office announced that drinks can now be served again on the casino floor, beginning on Friday. The drinks must be ordered from a server and the player must drink the beverage from their seat. Smoking is also going to be taking place again.
The decision falls in line with the state’s Department of Health’s Health and Safety Standards. The department provided new protocols for the industry that must be followed. For any food or beverage establishment with indoor service, the capacity must be 25% and no more.
Only eight customers can be seated per table and any food or beverages must be consumed while seated. This requirement was put in place to avoid players walking around without a mask on.
Casinos were ecstatic to be able to offer indoor dining again, even at a lowered capacity. They will be able to bring in more patrons with the service and now that drinks and smoking are back on the table, it will allow for even more visitors. The casinos have been struggling to regain revenues after losing a ton of cash due to being closed for three months.
Travel Restrictions
On top of the new announcements for casinos, the governor’s office updated its list regarding states as well as territories that are allowed to travel to New Jersey but must quarantine for two weeks after arriving. The advisory now adds Montana and Alaska to the list. This brings the total number of areas that must quarantine to 33.
Murphy wants to keep the state’s coronavirus numbers down and continue to see improvement. Murphy stated that they ask everyone to be responsible and have good citizenship by complying with the quarantine when traveling to the state from certain areas. The individual must be tested and self-quarantine for two weeks to ensure they do not have the virus and be a possible spreader in the state.
Health officials want residents and visitors of New Jersey to help slow the spread of the virus by wearing face coverings and social distancing. It will be interesting to see how the casinos handle the service options as they start back up and if patrons will comply with all restrictions and regulations.
It is unclear as to if smoking will be allowed while walking, but we can assume that designated areas or rules will be in place to avoid players moving about without a face covering. We shall see by the weekend how this all plays out and if it will be a blessing or another issue that casinos have to deal with regarding the virus restrictions.