Plexiglass safety shield dividers are shown attached to a mini-baccarat table at Bellagio Resort & Casino as the Las Vegas Strip property prepares to reopen.Ethan Miller/Getty Images
- Some hotels and casinos will be reopening on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday after closing in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Casinos will be required to have a plan for proper hygiene and social distancing before they can reopen.
- At Bellagio and other MGM Resorts properties, hand-washing stations and plexiglass shields have been set up on the casino floor.
Nevada is allowing some hotels and casinos to reopen on Thursday as part of the second phase of the state's reopening plan.
But Las Vegas casinos won't look quite the same as they did before the coronavirus pandemic. Before reopening, casinos must submit a plan to the Nevada Gaming Control Board that ensures proper hygiene and social distancing measures will be in place.
For MGM Resorts, whose Las Vegas properties include Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and New York-New York, that means enacting a "Seven-Point Safety Plan" that calls for employee screening, social distancing, enhanced cleaning protocols, and hand-washing stations on casino floors. Employees will be required to wear masks, while guests will be encouraged to do so. In some parts of the resort, like at roulette tables, guests will be required to wear masks.
MGM Resorts gave an early look at its new health and safety measures to Getty Images photographers at Bellagio, which has been closed since March 17.
Here's what they saw: