How to Keep Yourself Safe During Covid-19

First we're going to talk about what you could do with the player and then we'll talk about what you can do as the casino dealer. Now as with always sanitation is key. You hear this all the time wash your hands. Definitely wash your hands. I'm not saying not to wash your hands, but it goes a little bit further than that. So if you're planning on going to a casino to gamble please do the people who are in the casino, do them a favor and shower before you go to the casino. If you take a shower before you go to the casino you're protecting the people at the casino from anything you might be bringing from home. And then when you get home from the casino you want to take a shower again, and the reason why is because you're protecting your family from anything you might bring back from the casino. So sanitation hygiene wash your hands washing your body. It's all very important to keep yourself safe during this time. Another thing you want to do and again you hear this all the time, physical distancing. You want to make sure you keep 6 feet apart. It's pretty important! Now I know it's a little difficult if you're going to be playing at a blackjack game or casino game because there's no 6 feet between you the dealer and the other players. Some casinos have put up plastic barriers between the dealers and the players. And they've also put a plastic barriers between the one player and the other. Hopefully to help this, but again you just want to be careful, you want to be safe. A lot of casinos, they also cut down the number of people who are on the game. So instead of having like six, seven people on a game. Now they're only having three people on a game, first base, third base and the person in the center. So that cuts down on risk as well.

Now another thing you want to do again it depends on where you live and what casino you go to, but you want to wear a mask. Now in Las Vegas our governor has mandated that mask must be worn in places of establishments. This includes in places of establishments including casinos. So you want to make sure that you have a mask ready when you go a casino. One that you like or if you don't have a mesk the Casino will provide one for you. If they don't provide a mask, as you're walking into the casino when they're doing the thermal checks, then you can always get a mask at the front desk, where they'll be giving them away for free. At a lot of casinos, if you're staying as a guest they'll have cloth masks, really nice masks for you waiting, I think it's two masks waiting on your bed as you walk in. So make sure you always wear a mask. If you wear a mask you are protecting the people around you. If other people are wearing a mask then they are protecting you. So again, we have to think about our community, we have to think about the people around us and we have to be mindful about how this virus spreads and how it goes about killing people. So we want to try to remain as safe as possible.

Another thing is typically, again depending on the casino, they may have hand sanitizers on the table. So when you walk up to the casino table you'll do a little Spritz of hand sanitizer. You know wash your hands with hand sanitizer real quick and then you'll start playing the game. And when you're done playing the game you’ll spritz yourself with hand sanitizer again and wipe your hands as your walking off the table. So that helps keep down transfer of the the virus. Again depending on the casino, most casinos are trying to clean their chips after a player has lost their bet they’ll clean the chips before painting in the rack. It just depends on what casino you're going to. Now if your Casino doesn't have this, as a player feel free to bring the hand sanitizer with you. Feel free to bring the cleaning wipes or alcohol wipes to wipe down your area before and after you sit down. Wipe down the chairs the machines. If there is a plastic gard separating the two. Wipe that down too. There is so much to clean in the casinos that it's almost impossible to ask the employees to clean all of that. So if you do your part as a guest as a patron then it will make it a lot easier to keep the casino sanitize, and that will cut down on the spread of the disease or the spread of the virus.

Let's go to dealers. What can you do as a dealer? So, first thing for dealers. First and for most thing for dealers, if you're not feeling good, don’t go to work. Like that's pretty obvious. I really hope I don't have to say that, but apparently I do have to say that. So if you're not feeling good, don't go to work. Like take the day off. I know some Casinos still have the points. Oh my gosh believe me I know the points. And sometimes people can't take the day off because if they get one more point they get fired. I understand that but if you are able to please don't go to work if you're sick.

Another thing casinos require, you know, people that wear masks. So as a casino dealer you should be wearing a mask when you go to work. Again every casinos different. Really just depends on your location and the casino you work at. But if you wear a mask and the guest wear a mask, you're going to be more safe from Covid. Same thing as I said for the players, you want to wash your hands of course but also take a shower before you go to work and take a shower when you get home, for the same reasons that I stated for the players. It's all about protecting each other, we have to look out for each other. We have to be a community. We have to think about each others health and safety. We don't want to be careless and because of our carelessness you know someone's grandmother died because of that. You know this covid-19 is scary. So we have to take it seriously.

Next up is wearing masks of course. I don't have a mask right here. I should have brought a mask right here. But wear a mask. When you want to pick it up, you always pick it up by the straps, put it on over your ears. Don't touch the actual face part of it. Then the outside portion of your mask is protecting you from Covid. So if you sit there and you touch the outside portion of the your mask, you're now getting covid-19 germs all over your hands. So when you touch stuff and when you wipe your your head or when you touch your your nose or whatever you're doing, you're spreading the virus. So do not touch the outside of the mask if you can help it. Another thing too, again if they have hand sanitizer on the table, even if you're the dealer you want to use it. Most dealers and most places, you don't have to worry about wearing gloves, thank goodness. Cuz trying to deal with gloves would be annoying. But that means you still want to be safe and sanitary. So if the casino his hand sanitizer on your table make sure you use it. If your Casino doesn't have hand sanitizer on your table, I'm sure they would have no problem with you bringing hand sanitizer in from home and having it on the table. Especially during now what's going on right now.

Okay so next up for dealers, Casino dealers, is physical distance. So we're going over a lot of information right now and is a cliff notes version of this. If you're interested, if you want to know more we have an online course for this . All of the policies and procedures that we talked about today are based off of the Winn policies and procedures that they released, where they spoke to medical professionals and medical consultants and they figured out the best way to open up a casino and do these policies and procedures. Okay so physical distancing again what I was saying with the players the games are going to be open where there’s three people per table first base third base and a person in the center. If you have players who come up to the table and they're standing directly behind your player trying to look at the game and watch the game. As the dealer please let them know to stay six feet away. If we keep physical distancing between each other as well as wear a mask that will cut down on our risk. On a big baccarat table, there will be four chairs Max. On a craps table there'll be a maximum of three players on each side of the craps table. When you're going on break at the dealer when you're going to the dealers lounge or when you're going to EGR some casinos have taken out chairs in order to promote physical distancing. Or they taking out tables in order to promote physical distancing. So there's less places to sit. Again if you wear a mask if you physical distance this cuts down on your risk significantly. That means that when you're clockig in to start a work shift, please don't gather all at once don't crowd together in front of the bus terminal as you wait to clock in and out. Please try to keep physical distance if possible. Don't Gather in groups when you are waiting in line at the EDR or if you're taking a break and the dealers lounge. And try not to Cluster together when changing in the locker room or waiting in line to go to the bathroom. And of course some casinos larger departments have diffused their employees arrival time in order to thin the traffic volume during the shift change. So that was physical distancing. Starting the work day. Now when you're clocking in and out you wanted to be sure to have that hand sanitizer. Some casinos will have hand sanitizer at the clock-in clock-out station so you could do a little spritz of hand sanitizer on you just put it on before and after you clock in. Again you want to protect others as well as protect yourself. When you're tapping in and out of the game don't actually go up to the dealer and tap them out that is no longer acceptable. So what you want to do and again every casinos different but if you can, what you want to do is you want to walk up to the corner edge of the table trying to maintain that physical distancing. And verbally announce that you're topping it or verbally announce that you're there. The out going dealer will finish up what they're doing, hopefully they'll sanitize what they've been working with. So the shoe, the drop paddle, the toak Box anything that they might have touched that hasn't been sanitized. The’ll clean this before they leave in order to protect you from any germs when you come on the table. So doing that when you're tapping in and out of will protect each of the dealers from each other when they're going from game to game. And on your game you’ll have all the cleaning supplies, all the sanitation. If you don't you should be able to have like sanitizing wipes with you. Hopefully your management realizes there's a pandemic going on and they’ll be okay with you having hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes with you at the table. So next up is lots of cleaning, lots and lots of cleaning. We talked a little bit about that with tapping in and out.

But if you are on craps what are some of the cleaning procedures? So on craps the stickman will saitize all five dice between each new shooter. And the base dealers will sanitize the on off button as they are being tapped out and exiting the game. On roulette the roulette dealers when they're being tapped out, the outgoing dealer will sanitize the dolly, both roulette balls and the roulette wheel for the incoming dealer. On Pai Gow before the dealer leaves the table you want to sanitize the pai gow tiles, the dice cup, if you can the dice, depends if you touched it or not. Any buttons on the game such as Banker button, in Envy? button and basically anything you might have touched. Wipe that off, clean that off prior to the New Dealer coming onto the table.

Poker, so for poker every other poker table will be open and a limited number of seats will be available I think they're doing four people to game. Poker dealers will follow the same procedures when verbally tapping in and out of the game. And they’ll also sanitize what they touched on the table before leaving the table. So the toke box, line buttons, the table rating unit, any other equipment that they might handle before they exit.

So if a craps player is currently drinking and smoking Not Unusual then can that person just not wear masks because they have a legit excuse. Unfortunately yes. So the casino does require you to wear a mask. Unless of course there are exceptions, there's always exceptions. If you want to see the exceptions check out my new article on the website Las Vegas Reopening . We actually list all of these exceptions in that article. But one of the things is if you're at a table and you're drinking and you're smoking you don't have to wear a mask for as long as you're drinking and smoking. That's unfortunate but that's what they allow. Same thing with the slot machines. If you're at a slot machine and you don't want to wear masks just continually drink and smoke and you don't have to wear a mask.

So next up for the Dealer's is a break, break time. So when you go on break the very first thing you should do if you weren't doing that already if you weren't doing it before I'm always wash your hands always always always always wash your hands. As soon as you go on break. Try to wash your hands well please wash your hands when you return to the table as well. So against that protects you and protects the players when you go back from break. Washing hands is important. Especially if you're going on break and you're eating, your snacking, your you know...definitely wash your hands. For sure and also when you're in the break room or when you're in the EDR, hopefully you brought hand sanitizing wipes with you wipe down the chairs and wipe down the table before and after you're done using it. So after that comes washing the hands. And in my online course or covid-19 I go over how to properly wash your hands which we won't go over here now but I will say that employees at some casinos are recommended to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer a minimum of once per hour. Or after any of the following activities such as using the restroom, sneezing, touching your face, blowing your nose, cleaning, smoking, eating, drinking and entering and leaving the casino floor. Also when going on break and after starting a new shift. So pretty important. And as always keep in mind that every casino is different. So make sure you know your house way.

Questions

Alan says I saw a video on YouTube that said hotels in Las Vegas we're not going to clean rooms everyday. Is this true? I have not heard anything on the matter. I don't know the answer to that. I assumed they would clean it every day unless you're staying in the room, like if you're staying in the room and you don't want your room clean, you know and you're going to be there for three or four days, then they won't come and they won't clean your room. You're the only person in there, you're the only person using their room. But that's something that they would do before, you know, like that was a before covid-19 type so a thing. The casinos they always always always always always always clean the room between guest. Yes they will never not clean the room so you guys never have to worry about anything like that. If they're not cleaning the room everyday is just because you ask them not to

We have a question from Andrew. Hey Andrew it's good to see you. How much time does the staff wait before checking their temperature after being outside? So in Las Vegas when they're checking your temperature you're going to be doing it in two phases. You're going to do it as soon as you come up to the door. And if your temperature is over a hundred degrees they're going to put you in a second area, a waiting room like a cool down area. And you're going to wait for 10 minutes and then they're going to check your temperature again. If your temperature is over a hundred degrees, again they won't let you on the property. If it's under then they will let you on the property. And the reason why is just because Las Vegas is so freaking hot then you're when you're walking the Las Vegas Strip, your going to be over 100 degrees. And that's what they're doing with that.

Okay so let's see what else you guys are saying. Rocky says, “Is the show industry still on? All the music is probably caned, I would think. Most all of them major Productions are not, they're still dark, they're not playing at the moment. Some I think some of them let's continued. Actually I can't think of any that's continued. So from what I know I don't think that they're going on right now. If you are watching this and you know that a certain show is going on right now, please put it in the comments. Please put in the chat so we can talk about it. But from what I know there's no shows going on right now. I could be wrong about that. So again if you're watching this and you know otherwise. Please put it in the chat but from what I've heard they're not they're not doing it right now. Like they would be the last phase kind of thing.

So Rocky says, “Have some casinos gone non-smoking yet?” In Las Vegas non-smoking just did not catch on, some casinos try to do non-smoking rooms where they have an entire room that's non-smoking and those rooms are always dead, there's zero people in there and a lot of casinos feel like they're losing profits because these rooms are dead. So a lot of them they didn't go to the non-smoking. They won’t unless they're forced.