Caesars Entertainment announced Thursday the closure of their land-based gaming facilities in the US would affect 90% of its staff, employees who would remain employed but placed on furlough for an indefinite period of time.

Trim Wage Costs

The casino and hospitality operator that has nearly 64,000 employees on a payroll explained it would move to a “minimum workforce”, as it shut down its properties consistent with government- and tribe-mandated directives.

“Given the closure of our properties, we are taking difficult but necessary steps to protect the company’s financial position and its ability to recover when circumstances allow us to reopen and begin welcoming our guests and employees back to our properties.”

Toni Rodio, CEO, Caesars Entertainment

Caesars pointed out wages for the furloughed staff for the first two weeks of the closure would be paid at their current rate of pay, and from then on employees could use their paid off time. Furloughs will also affect company’s corporate staff.

Support Its Employees And Their Families

The owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp/LVS/, Sheldon Adelson, vastly criticized mainly for his strong opposition to online gambling legalization, came up a day earlier, stating that all of his nearly 10,000 employees that were not working during these times due to the closure would get their full paychecks for 2 months.

“To my fellow corporate executives who are looking at spreadsheets and trying to ­determine the impact this crisis will have on sales and share prices, let me say: Our job as business leaders is now as simple as it is challenging. It is to maximize the number of employees and their families that we can help — and help them for as long as possible.”

Sheldon Adelson, Chairman and CEO, LVS

Such an attitude can only spark optimism that the current health and economic crisis will be successfully navigated and the casino industry and the thousands of people involved with it will survive. Because as the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, only the tough get going”, it is people like Adelson that have to step into their leaders’ roles, despite their business differences.

Another casino operator, Wynn Resorts, announced earlier in the week that all of its 15,000 workers in Nevada and Massachusetts would remain on payroll until May 15, giving them 2 months of wages from the moment the casinos were closed.

Stations Casinos, another land-based gaming facilities operator in Las Vegas, announced at the time the casinos closed down it would offer regular pay and health benefits to all of its hourly and salaried full-time team members through April 30.

Some May Have No Other Choice

At the other end of the spectrum, MGM Resorts, the largest employer in Nevada, began putting its staff on furlough even before the order for closure had come in, or otherwise face $14.4 million per day of cash reserves depletion. MGM, though, offers a donation fund for emergency relief for employees that has currently accumulated more than $4 million.

Gaming technology provider companies such as International Game Technology /IGT/ were also affected and would furlough around 2,300 employees due to the decrease in its operations caused by the closure impact on casinos.