California: San Jose greenlights casinos to open outdoors

California's San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to authorize casinos to expand their operations into their private parking lots. The city’s two card rooms, Bay 101 and Casino M8trix, are required to gain written approval from city administrators before they can start welcoming customers back to their outdoor card tables.

The plan to reopen casinos outside passed on a 10-1 vote on Tuesday night, with Councilmember Maya Esparza casting the lone dissenting vote, citing health and public safety concerns. The two facilities will now follow suit of other open California casinos by entertaining guests outside. The setup would give casinos room to space out customers under giant tents and minimize the risk of COVID-19.

Robert Lindo, Vice President of Casino M8trix, said the casino is eager to open in a safe, outdoor environment after being closed for nearly six months. “Anything Casino M8trix can do to get our employees back to work safely, to generate some much-needed tax revenue for the city of San Jose, and to provide outdoor entertainment and food and beverage to our amazing patrons, would be spectacular,” Lindo said, San José Spotlight reports.

Before COVID-19, San Jose’s card room taxes were expected to bring in $18.9 million, but that number dropped to $13.5 million after the casinos closed following shelter-in-place orders. “The more months they go out of service, the less (tax revenue) we will be able to generate,” Councilmember Raul Peralez said.

“There would be a reduction of the indoor gaming with social distancing and all the necessary COVID-19 requirements,” Bay 101 Vice President Ron Werner said. “Frankly, we don’t know what it will look like until we see how patrons respond.” He said there will likely be restrictions on the number of players, glass shields between players and dealers, cleaning requirements and face mask requirements.

The move comes as San Jose looks to increase taxes on card rooms. The City Council last month approved drafting a ballot measure to increase gaming taxes from 15% to 16.5% and increasing the number of card tables by 15 at each casino.

Councilmember Johnny Khamis said casinos would need to work with the police department to make sure proper regulations and security checks are in place before reopening outdoors. The county’s health order allows for businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and fitness studios to operate outdoors. Card rooms were not included in that list, until now.

This week’s council decision marks the latest amendment to San José Al Fresco, a plan introduced by Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilmember Dev Davis in early May to help businesses struggling from the economic fallout of forced closures and reduced operations due to the pandemic.