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Kelowna  

Chances Casino gearing up for Canada Day opening

Casinos itching to reopen

While every sector of the economy has been hurt in one form or another throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, casinos and arenas have been hardest hit.

Neither have been able to reopen in B.C. since the province initially shut down in mid March of last year.

That's 15 months without indoor sports and concerts — 15 months since without live gaming of any kind.

That's about to change.

As the province begins Phase 2 of reopening which includes the opening of movie theatres and banquet halls, liquor service until midnight and a loosening of travel restrictions across B.C., casino operators are anticipating their reopening July 1.

"We are looking forward to getting the doors back open again," said Chances Kelowna owner Stan Walt.

Chances, like most gaming operations made the necessary changes to allow for physical distancing between slot machines last spring, but were not allowed to reopen.

The light at the end of the tunnel for Walt and others was the introduction of the province's four phase opening plan.

Phase 3, which can start no earlier than July 1, includes the reopening of gaming and night clubs.

"All of our slots will be open because they have already been spread out ... We have roughly 310 slots," said Walt.

"We are looking to bring table games online in August. It would be allowed at our opening, but we aren't trained up for that yet."

Chances was approved for table games such as blackjack in late 2019, but were unable to get things ramped up before the pandemic hit.

The return of bingo will have to wait a while longer.

"Dr. Henry has made it very clear that distancing is a part of our opening. We have limited capacity.

"Bingo needs crowds to be able to pay prize boards, and to be able to operate. Without the ability to draw large numbers of people, there is a necessity for bingo to remain paused on the sidelines until we work our way back to normal."

Walt says both the provincial health office and BCLC have been fair in providing information they will need in terms of protocols and seating numbers.

And, while some businesses have been struggling to get employees to return, Walt says that hasn't been the case at Chances.

"For the most part, a large percentage of our staff have indicated they intend to return. I am pleased. I expected maybe a lot more of our employee base would have moved on in one form or another.

"Fortunately from the gaming side of things, people are excited to come back to their job. They like it."

The same appears to be true at Gateway Casino operations in Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Kamloops.

"We have begun to recall staff based on what is needed to operate the business under current restrictions. As those restrictions are lifted more staff will be returned to active work," says Tanya Gabara, public relations director at Gateway in an email to Castanet.

"We are pleased to see that many have hung in there with us and are eager and ready to get back to work on July 1st. As you can imagine this has been a very challenging year for the many employees who have been off work since we were forced to close in March 2020."

As one of the most highly regulated environments in the province, Gabara says they are familiar with both implementation, and enforcement of strict compliance requirements such as those being imposed on all sectors.

Both slot machines and table games will be operational with at least two metres of spacing between each. Physical barriers have been installed where physical distancing is not possible.

Only table games in which cards can be dealt face up will be available in the short term. Players will not be permitted to touch the cards.

Regulations around gaming could change again in early September when the final phase of reopening could begin.

At that point, restrictions on the number of people allowed in indoor venues could be lifted altogether.



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