Casino Reopening Amid Coronavirus Has Peninsula Abuzz
SAN BRUNO, CA — A pandemic with no end in sight, economic collapse, social unrest, a looming political crisis, apocalyptic fires and smoke-choked skies.
It’s all apparently no match for a vice that’s gripped mankind since the Stone Age.
Need proof?
When a historic Peninsula casino reopened for outdoor gaming amid a Labor Day weekend heat wave, gamblers waited in lines that stretched around the block.
San Bruno’s Artichoke Joe’s, which has welcomed gamblers for over a century, rolled the dice on the construction of a tent to accommodate “open-air” gaming, Artichoke Joe’s President Vincent DeFriese said in a video posted by H24News.
Artichoke Joe's Casino in San Bruno, California, has opened an outdoor gambling facility for its customers after months of being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/53W3ddKb2P
— H24 (@H24News_) September 10, 2020
The outdoor gaming facility was approved by San Mateo County public health officials, NBC Bay Area reports. The casino has installed sneeze guards to protect employees and isn’t serving booze. It has also enhanced sanitization protocols.
The casino employs 400 workers, all of whom have been offered their jobs back, DeFriese said.
“We faced the fact that we’re not going to be able to open anytime soon in our regular casino - we’ve been closed since the middle of March - so we’ve decided to take the opportunity to do outdoor gaming or open air gaming, and that’s what prompted this tent,” DeFriese said.
“It’s been exciting. At 6 o’clock last Friday (Sept. 4) we had a line down the street. People were excited to come back, and for the most part, even dealing with the elements, the challenges of how hot it is here and such, they’ve been very supportive and happy to be back.”
DeFriese acknowledged that the reopening has been fraught with challenges, noting that even moving the casino itself outdoors was no easy task.
But so far, so good.
DeFriese said there have been no known COVID-19 transmissions since Artichoke opened its 13,000-square-foot outdoor casino, The San Mateo Daily Journal reports.
"The sneeze guards are there so you guys are kind of in your own bubble, so no one spreads any germs,” Mani Phommabong told NBC Bay Area.
“Every dealer gets a hand towel at the beginning of their shift, and they have to wipe down every countertop that's being touched, and the cards and the machine.
Artichoke Joe’s is the first Bay Area casino to open for outdoor gaming since the pandemic triggered shelter orders, DeFriese told the Daily Journal.
This article originally appeared on the San Bruno Patch
