Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak hinted that a new lockdown may soon be coming and it could have an impact on live poker. The Democratic politician fired off a tweetstorm Tuesday night that might have some business owners and even poker players nervous.
In mid-March, the governor forced the closures of most Nevada businesses, including casinos, due to COVID-19. That eliminated the live poker scene in the state until early June. Since then, poker has returned with 19 of the 31 card rooms having reopened the past five months.
But if the Silver State doesn't get its coronavirus problem under control, and soon, it appears the governor is going to take action. And that likely won't be good news for the poker community. The governor began his tweetstorm by sharing a doom and gloom outlook for the state.
"Our country & our state are on a rough course right now. New cases, hospitalizations and – tragically - fatalities are on the rise. The fall spike, predicted by medical & scientific experts, is now our reality. Nevadans need to accept this reality & change behaviors immediately," Sisolak wrote.
He followed that tweet up by saying he's encouraged it appears a vaccine may be on the horizon. But then he warned Nevadans that the vaccine isn't here yet and likely won't be available to the general public any time soon. So, he's calling on residents of his state to change their behaviors to stop the spread of COVID-19.
"We must act now to keep our economy open & eventually restore other vital parts of our life," he wrote.
What are the next steps?
Governor Sisolak is encouraging all Nevadans to stay home except for necessary trips to the store, to eat, or to go to work. He suggests that if people limit their time spent in public, coronavirus cases will go down. Nevada had 1,300 COVID-19 cases and seven new deaths on Monday. That was nearly a single-day record for the state. And cases haven't been dropping in recent weeks.
So, the concerned governor is ready to take action, although he didn't give specifics of what restrictions he will put in place. But he did say that he's giving the state two weeks to get the cases down or new restrictions will happen.
"As a result, for the next two weeks, Nevadans need to operate in a "Stay at Home 2.0" mentality to get things under control so our public health response infrastructure can catch up. We need that time to bring testing timelines down and catch up on contact tracing," Sisolak tweeted.
Sisolak encouraged Nevadans to avoid going over to other homes for dinner parties or other gatherings. He continues to ask his residents to social distance when in public. Face masks are required at every Nevada business and can only be taken off when eating, drinking, or smoking.
He continued saying that he believes he can keep the economy open so long as locals and tourists follow his COVID-19 guidelines. And he said he doesn't want to force businesses to shut down again as doing so is bad for the economy. But what if Nevadans don't follow his wishes and the coronavirus cases keep trending upwards? It appears that in two weeks the governor will be forced to take action with business closures. That could be detrimental to the live poker scene in Las Vegas.
Featured image source: Flickr
