Tomorrow (Thursday), the province will enter Step 3 of BC’s 4 Step Restart Plan, which permits casinos to open with certain restrictions.
Some of the limits include only allowing half of the venue’s total capacity and just half of the gaming stations to open.
Treasure Cove’s Marketing Manager, Amanda Chandler, says they’re getting ready for a 9 a.m. reopening on Thursday, and the staff are excited to go back to work.
All of Treasure Cove’s staff who were working before to the pandemic have been given their jobs back, and around 80% have accepted.
Chandler, however, says that while the staff is ready to return to work, there are still some unknowns when it comes to operations.
She explained that “It’s been extremely hectic, it’s honestly day-by-day and hour-by-hour sometimes as far as waiting for the government or BCLC to give us direction on what’s coming up.”
However, the casino has made certain changes as a result of the information provided by the government and BCLC.
Chandler added that “Our gaming floor is now spread out a further distance across the facility, we have plexiglass partitions up in between all of the slot machines, plexiglass is now on our tables, basically all public spaces will have plexiglass separating customers from our staff.”
She claims that the facility would not look exactly the same as it did prior to the pandemic, and that they will begin by reopening slots and table games.
On July 5th, bingo will reopen with reduced games, and slots will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., with table games such as Blackjack and Fast Action Poker accessible from 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
The updated Casino and Community Gaming Centre Enhanced Health and Safety Measures report from BCLC includes a few measures, such as required mask wear for both staff and players.
In addition, the report states that there must be at least two meters of space between gambling machines and that casino staff must receive updated training.
Community poker will not be available upon reopening, according to BCLC, however some casinos may offer poker variant games like as Texas Hold’em.
Chandler adds that based on the response on social media, they expect a large number of people this weekend.
