Rivers Casino Philadelphia Reopens Its Doors
Saturday, July 18, 2020
(Gloucestercitynews.net)(July 18, 2020)Since the Keystone State announced a lockdown about three months ago, Rivers Casino Philadelphia has kept its doors shut. Even after the restrictions were slowly lifted and some operations began to return to normal, the gaming property held back. Well, this seems to be finally coming to an end as the casino operator has recently revealed its plans for getting backing in the game after a long absence. After the official reopening date that was July 17, the company has pledged to put effort into a ton of things that it believes are essential for compliance with a new set of operational guidelines as well as the safety of everyone who will be at the venue.
As exciting as it is, the casino is treading very carefully to ensure that everyone stays safe and it goes without saying that this has to come at a cost. All other casinos that have reopened in Pennsylvania are already operating differently from before the pandemic and Rivers Casino will be no different.
Playing Safe
Needless to say, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is still quite a big deal and there have to be precautions and measures put in place to ensure that it does not spread any further. Just like the other casino operator in Pennsylvania, Rivers Casino Philadelphia will only be letting in half of their usual capacity.
That measure will be complemented with the use of masks, spacing at the gaming tables, regular sanitization as well as limitation of the number of operational slot machines. Patrons are also required to undergo temperature checks before being allowed into the facility. Moreover, no one will be allowed to eat, drink, or smoke while inside the casino.
Flexing Its Muscle in the Online Space
Luckily for Rivers Casino, the lockdown did have as much of a devastating effect on some of its revenue streams. Its online casino offering that recently launched in the Keystone State has been operating as usual and with the surge in online gambling activities, they have added quite a number of customers. Even so, since it is still pretty new, the absence of certain popular gambling options such as video bingo, progressive games, virtual sports betting, and even keno is very noticeable. According to Luke Thomas, editor at NonGamStopSites.com, land and online cross operators like Rivers Casino are seeing a surge in mid-tier demographic games and even bingo sites not on Gamstop if one were to take a sample across land-based casino, poker and betting products against their online counterparts.
The lack of less-played gaming options has definitely been a drawback for the online casino but the site has already made space for all of them. That said, it probably will not be too long before Pennsylvanian have even more game titles to enjoy.
Necessary Move to Stimulate Revenue Streams
All of these measures are in line with the guidelines that were recently released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). Despite the fact that COVID-19 has not been fully contained, the decision to allow the reopening of casinos and other aspects of the economy seems to be a necessary move. The ravaging impacts of the pandemic and the economic slowdown that ensued left the state in dire need of revenue streams.
There are already proposals for even more gambling expansion that pertain to bringing a new gaming vertical under regulation by the PGCB as well as the auction of a new mini-casino license. It is hard to tell if these will be enough to bring everything back to normal but there is certainly a lot of optimism about their potential. So, for now, all we can do is wait and see how everything plays out with our fingers crossed.
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