Casino Reopening and a RF Run

[Lucky Larry]

It been a while since i posted so here is a quick reopening segment.

With casinos shut down Sweet C and I enjoyed lots of VP practice (usually we practice every night) and accomplished a lot on my “Honey Do List”. Being older and having several potential medical concerns we were hesitant to return when Lake Charles, La reopened casinos. We eventually contacted our host (Carol –the sweetest host we ever known and had as a host since 2011 at previous casinos). Carol is older like Sweet C and me and we talked at length about the conditions and preventive practices at the Golden Nugget. After several conversations we decided to make a run over taking several precautions. First, we booked a mid-week trip to reduce the crowd size. VP always has smaller crowds but we certainly didn’t want to go over a weekend.
Second, we discussed our own preventive measures.
Multiple masks-check; Hand Sanitizer – check; Spray bottles of alcohol – check; Extra sets of clothes to change into- check; Open the room balcony door frequently for fresh air– check; Sanitizer for the room
Cease play if we felt unsafe (smoker, cougher, etc close to us.)
Eat in only the outside seating area of the restaurants.
Upon arrival Carol met us and checked our temperature, conducted a survey of health/exposure, and gave us a wrist-band for access to the casino floor.
Having been exposed to SARS-COVID 19 early on (March) from one of our Son-in-Laws and having lost a friend and fellow retired principal to COVID we were extremely cautious. My brother and daughter are also nurses in the Houston area so we are constantly aware of the severity of COVID.

Golden Nugget Lake Charles
Casino Operations: The casino was limited to 50% capacity with every other machine turned off. Every patron was temperature checked and banded for entry (the first trip). Since then each patron receives a hand stamp. Hand sanitizer and germicidal wipes were located strategically throughout the casino for patrons to use. We cleaned every machine and chair we used. All casino personnel wore masks and the tables appeared to do a decent job of requiring social distancing. Plexiglas partitions have been added at the high use machines (especially in the high limit areas). Gotta have those high rollers to help recover losses and keep them happy. But, the most popular penny machines also had dividers. Pay table were not changed or lowered. Waitress service somewhat slower and some housekeeping cleaning was occurring. Table operations were limited to 4 but during the last couple of trips while 4 were playing 6-10 people might be standing around talking to them. Thank gosh masks are now mandatory for everyone in La.

Hotel Precautions: The hotel policy is to no longer clean rooms daily but only after check out. No room service was provided. Hotel check in was stretched down the main hallway with 6 foot social distancing markers. We luckily use VIP and met our host the first time over.

Restaurants: Reservations were not allowed prior to arrival for sign-up. (We’ve since learned we can reserve time through our confirmation email.) All restaurants were limited capacity leading to 1-2-21/2 hour wait times. Staffing was also limited. Limited menus in some places and paper menus.

Amenities: The Spa was closed but the pools were open and with lots of people-50/50 on social distancing. It has gotten worse. The blessing is the 100-110 heat index is limiting the pools mid-day. It just too hot for many people.

Comps: The compensations were the same with one exception. Weekly free play was changed to Mon-Thursday instead of Mon-Wed. Prior to closure additional daily free play was provided daily Thursday-Sunday after 2:00 pm. This eliminated one extra night of additional monies. Weekly meal comps remained the same - based on play. So between us we could us our $125-150 in meal money to eat each night at one of the Landry’s branded restaurants: Salt Grass Steak House, Landry’s, Grotto, Charthouse, etc. Our other comp $ could buy lunches.

Casino Play
We generally play a bank of 6 All Star machines (never at the bars) but only 3 were functioning and only 1 of the 2 hundred play machine. GNLC has generally only regulars playing during mid-week and we never had an issue getting a machine. We have now made 5 trips: late May, June (2) and July (2). Only this past weekend did we go over a weekend. (Huge free play bonus $$). We also anticipated this being our last trip due to Texas now being one of the hotspots and anticipating La. making major restrictions again. Each of our trips we would take our normal bank roll of a couple of hundred each and play 5¢, 10¢ or 25¢ VP. The All Stars offer 3-5-10 play 25¢ and same pay table 5¢ -10play. We don’t play the bonus wager games. They are offered at generally another 1% lower pay tables. The 100 hand has the same pay tables at 10¢ as 25¢ VP so I can often play 20-25 hands for 25¢ wagers since I almost exclusively play multi-hand. Sweet C has greater patience and less risk factor than me. She also plays DW Bonus and caught Ds/A on 50¢ this trip as well.
Luckily each trip one of us has a caught a Royal Flush on 25¢ or 50¢ which helps the bank roll. Six RF in total.
I’ve never played much DDB (I’m a DW/DWB/Bonus –high return;low volatility guy) but I practiced many hours on DDB (9/5) over the hiatus. So I’ve tried to spend time acclimating myself the ebbs and flows of DDB. Luckily, Sweet C is a great mentor and motivator as she’s been dealt quad 2s, 3s and.or 4’s and Aces in each of our trips and caught Aces/K multiple time including on 50¢ twice. I’ve caught several nice dealt hands on DDB, including multiple hands of dealt quads on 10¢ and this past trip 5 sets of dealt quads on 10¢, 25¢ and 50¢ the best being dealt quads Aces, quad 3’s (twice) and quad 2’s/K on 5 hands 25¢. Also one of my RF was on DDB. So this last trip we pulled 6 - $1k tickets+ with no “Gs”. Sorry Uncle Sam! I’ve also caught half-a-dozen 10¢ RF to keep me in the games over the trips.
Funny side bar when you’re lucky. I was playing 25 hands @10¢ DW (with less than $100 bankroll) and got distracted by a regular who wanted to show me his TDB Aces/K. As I returned to my seat I accidentally hit Max Play ($50) hand DW. The panic turned a smile as the Deuce,8,8,3,8 came into view on 100 hands-a $300+ hit.

So we’ll now wait to see how the upsurge in cases affects our decisions to go over. La is now requiring face masks in the casinos so that’s a great relief but 80% of the players are still from Houston/Texas so if we go we’ll still limit ourselves to our routine. Sunday-Monday allowing us to use Sunday bonus $$ and Monday’s new weekly $ and both weeks meal $.

Sidenote: So this week we got a new host. Our wonderful host Carol retired for health concerns. We certainly understand in lieu of the host expectations by some high limit players. We're not high limit bus as i stated earlier she immediately took us on when she moved from our old casino to GNLC. Best wishes Carol and thanks for a great 10 year run. We love you. Talk to you soon.

Best wishes to all. Stay safe, wear a mask, and good luck.

[OTABILL]

Sounds like you had a few nice trips and great hits. Both of you stay healthy. Most important thing of all.

[seemoreroyals]

Glad to hear you and your family are doing well. And congrats on the continued good luck!!!

We are in a similar situation to you. By now my wife would normally already be at 7 stars with CET and we would be planning casino trips across the country. We have only taken two one day trips to our home property Horseshoe Bossier City La. since the pandemic hit. While we did have a little luck and did like some measures the casino took ( I wish they would have went a little further and eliminated smoking.) we probably won't be going back either until the covid numbers go back down. In both Texas and La it is just to big of a risk to take right now.

These are some strange times we are going through right now. Hoping we can all put this behind us ASAP but it does not look like it is going away any time soon. Stay safe and good health wishes to you and your family. Are you going to be doing any teaching or administrating this fall?

[Chicagoan]

Nice info, good update. Thanks Larry!

Has anyone played on the Mississippi coast very recently? If so, what were the conditions? Thanks!

[olds442jetaway]

Great to hear from you double L and I’m glad you and family are staying safe. Like you we lost a few longtime friends and neighbors to the virus all of the ones we lost were in nursing homes. I’m glad you folks are enjoying yourselves and doing well playing. For now I am back regularly playing at Mohegan sun. The job they have done I would consider excellent with safety measures and very similar to what you have posted. There are still a few problems with drunks either getting into arguments with people or not wanting to leave their mascon but Security has been right on the case so far to deal with them. I know the above word is a typo mascon but I decided to leave it and create my own word out of it and I know everybody will know what it means. For once Siri made a mistake that I like. Stay safe and well. Olds

[Lucky Larry]

seemoreroyals,
Thanks for asking. Yes, the school districts (23) around the Houston area are all still debating openings. Most had set early August start dates but with the upsurge a couple larger ones just announced "on-line learning" instead of on campus learning for the first six weeks. Most were giving parents the option of on campus or on line learning to start school. So several others have already amended their schedules as well do to the huge epidemic of cases. As a result, my situation and the other supervisors are all in limbo as to how we'll handle the situation. I work with 3-4 districts each semester and they stay pretty close on procedures/schedules. Its going to be interesting seeing how we stagger/implement student teaching with on-line teaching occurring. Ironically, we were moving to a new more technology-based program so I may be observing Zoom lessons instead of in person classrooms. Heck, I might get away with wearing my university logo shirt/tie and shorts/sandals.

It is indeed a new paradigm shift but necessary in lieu of the situation. I'm really concerned about the risks were putting on school staff and students and their families by opening physical campuses. I've tried to imagine being back on my campus as principal again. At the elementary with 800-1000 students and 100 staff you are going to have constant exposure even if you cluster and reduce class size. Transportation costs are going to double with double runs to stagger hours or days. More importantly, I hear people say children are less susceptible but I'm not sure there is evidence since most parents are doing a good job to protect their children. And, were not sure if they can become carriers. More data is needed or I need to read more data/research-based evidence. In our area, high schools go from small (1,500+ students) to huge with (5,000 students) on one campus. This is equal to a small junior college. Even with masks there will be a lack of social distancing, a break down of social contact outside and inside of school. What these students do socially will return to campus. Schools will become a Petri dish waiting to explode. School will start and the soup will simmer for a week or two and boom major outbreaks amongst students, staff and families.
I can clearly see campus staff being on campus, planning and conducting on-line lessons during the day. I can also eventually see a hybrid of on-line and scheduled on campus instruction. Divide classes into 2 groups: A: on-line M/W and on campus T/Thur. for follow-up instruction; B: on campus M/W and on-line T/Thur. Fridays could be testing, planning, tutoring time. That is how I would implement it at all levels. This could reduce by half the student contact with each other on campus and reduce teaching level. Departments, grade levels could alternate learning tasks. The best on-line teachers could teach and the rest of the department conduct in-person lesson follow-up.

Personally, in planning for the semester, I’ve ordered one of the new “Leaf” N-99 transparent masks in case I’m on campuses. There is so much subtle communications that goes on with body language and facial communications. Especially with elementary kids its important for them to see facial features – a smile, a frown, a familiar face. They too are experiencing stress. Besides, I may need to give that “teacher eye” to some of my college students. Either way, it going to be a “whole new ballgame!”

Stay safe, wear a mask, and stay well!

[Lucky Larry]

OTABILL,
You guys are in AZ are in your own hotspot. Hope the health situation you've been in has improved or is stable. You too, stay safe and well. Hopefully, we'll someday get back out that way and we can meet up.

Olds,
Sounds like the casino is doing a good job of trying. Is your wife going back to teaching this semester? What are the districts up there doing? Stay safe.

[damule]

OTABILL,
You guys are in AZ are in your own hotspot. Hope the health situation you've been in has improved or is stable. You too, stay safe and well. Hopefully, we'll someday get back out that way and we can meet up.

Olds,
Sounds like the casino is doing a good job of trying. Is your wife going back to teaching this semester? What are the districts up there doing? Stay safe.

Larry, I'm in Arizona too. The numbers are not accurate! They're reporting all tests that come back positive for the current virus, anti-bodies for any past coronavirus, and inconclusive tests all as POSITIVE for COVID19. It's completely conflated with political agendas and the school districts are in the battle on both sides along with parents and government. It's a huge mess right now.

[OTABILL]

While we did have a little luck and did like some measures the casino took ( I wish they would have went a little further and eliminated smoking.) we probably won't be going back either until the covid numbers go back down. In both Texas and La it is just to big of a risk to take right now.

Glad you had successful trips. Casinos need to go all out in the measures they take to ensure the health and safety of their customers and staff. The three Gila River Casinos here in AZ painfully learned that lesson when they had to shut down a second time for two weeks to upgrade their precautionary measures. That included eliminating smoking, at least temporarily. You are right regarding being cautious. Good tidings in the future. I have gone a couple of times to one of are casinos which put in strict measures. Felt safer there than in Costco. Nevertheless, I still have my trepidations because of the actions of patrons, not the facility so I am hesitant to return.

[OTABILL]

OTABILL,
You guys are in AZ are in your own hotspot. Hope the health situation you've been in has improved or is stable. You too, stay safe and well. Hopefully, we'll someday get back out that way and we can meet up.

Olds,
Sounds like the casino is doing a good job of trying. Is your wife going back to teaching this semester? What are the districts up there doing? Stay safe.

Not sure what you mean by health situation. I'm doing okay, I think you know my wife passed away in February. If you are talking about AZ, we shall see what the future brings. The increased conscientiousness of more and more people to wear masks and engage in social distancing, particularly indoors, is encouraging. Hopefully, a vaccine and more effective treatments come online rapidly. When that happens, look forward to you visiting out here and getting together.