Coronavirus Deals Las Vegas a Bad Hand: Sportsbook ‘Eerily Quiet’

One dealer even offered a friendly wave as we walked by.

We were on an exploratory mission on a weekday afternoon. Our goal: To check on the status of casino life as news of the coronavirus pandemic saturated television newscasts, websites and social media.

Our destination was not the Strip but a neighborhood casino near Summerlin and Peccole Ranch in northwest Las Vegas.

Our first stop as we strolled in was the race and sportsbook. Not surprisingly, it was largely deserted. There was limited activity from the race side as a few gamblers watched simulcast horse races.

But the sportsbook was eerily quiet. A notice of canceled games was displayed prominently in the center of the electronic display.

One man with a beverage briefly loitered near the area briefly, then wandered off. Another patron appeared, seemed puzzled by the void, then also disappeared. Two employees chatted quietly in a corner, but there were no ticket writers at the counter.

Hey, no games, no need for anybody to punch in those tickets.

What’s next for Las Vegas? It’s too soon to say.

Las Vegas has coped with major crises before. The terror attacks of 9/11 were a devastating blow. The mass shooting of Oct. 1, 2017, was an horrific event.

But both of those were one-time, cataclysmic events, what lawyers like to call “acts of God.”

The coronavirus pandemic is different. It is still a creeping threat with many unknowns like a thunderstorm you can see on the horizon that hasn’t yet arrived. You can see the clouds, you can see the flashes of lightning and you can even hear the distant rumble of thunder. But you won’t be able to feel the intensity of the storm until it arrives and the rain (or hail) begins to fall.

It’s logical to assume that the number of “presumptive” cases will escalate in the U.S. as testing eventually broadens. And it’s logical to assume that Las Vegas and Nevada will see more cases and eventually deaths from the “novel” virus.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has declared a state of emergency. Shares prices of local operators such as Boyd Gaming Corp. and Red Rock Resorts have been pummeled. After Full House Resorts Inc. CEO Dan Lee told investors on Thursday that the company had not yet seen any effects from the coronavirus, the share price fell 40 percent to roughly $1.

Months after 9/11, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority slowly and carefully swung into action with a subtle marketing and advertising campaign encouraging people to have fun and again consider Las Vegas as a destination.

It worked. Or maybe America was ready to play again. But Las Vegas slowly returned to normal.

Las Vegas has show remarkable resiliency over many crises and many unforeseen events. Over time, Las Vegas will surely surmount this crisis as well.

But it’s still early in the game. There are still many unknowns. And it will take time.

We spent perhaps an hour at the neighborhood casino and briefly handled money and chips.

Before we left, we washed our hands. Twice.