Casinos, Hotels in Las Vegas Scale up Operations, Hire Employees

The gambling and hospitality industry is starting to recover after the difficulties brought by the pandemic last year. With more restrictions gradually being lifted, operators are scaling up business and hiring employees to meet the growing demand.

Las Vegas on Its Way to Economic Recovery

Last year, the gambling and hospitality industry in Nevada felt the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Las Vegas and its world-famous Strip of luxury resorts and casinos have probably suffered the most from the pandemic. After the initial shutdown which lasted for a few months, in June, the gambling venues were allowed to reopen doors. Back then, multiple restrictions such as capacity limits, mandatory mask policy, and enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols were implemented to reduce COVID-19 spreading.

Earlier this year, Nevada started to gradually lift COVID-related restrictions. As a result, after operating at 50% of their normal capacities, casino operators increased their occupancy to 80% in April. Furthermore, in May, the mandatory face-covering policy was lifted for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Now, considering that the vaccination against COVID-19 continues, the gambling and hospitality industry in Las Vegas is on its way to economic recovery. Furthermore, the state’s full economic reopening plan launches today. In that line of thought, last week, Governor Steve Sisolak signed an emergency regulation adjusting pricing standards for transportation network companies. Under the regulation, ridesharing companies will be able to better serve Nevadans and state visitors.

Operators to Expand Their Workforce

Considering that the operators are on the way to economic recovery, now they are looking to fill in various positions. Last week, David Strow, a spokesman for Boyd Gaming spoke to Las Vegas Review-Journal and deemed hiring as one of the “biggest challenges right now”. With that in mind, he acknowledged that Boyd was able to stand out as a competitive employer on the market by “promoting our unique workplace culture“. Furthermore, only recently, Boyd increased its gaming floor capacity operations to 100%.

The Venetian’s talent acquisition manager, James Ikeda revealed that last week a massive career fair was done as the operator was looking to hire some 300 employees. He deemed last week’s fair as “one of the bigger ones” and “very successful“. Undoubtedly, hiring more employees is not unexpected, considering that Ikeda said that The Venetian has seen 100% occupancy during the weekends. Last but not least, he acknowledged that the “company and the property has done phenomenal” and now it is ramping up its efforts considering the growing demand.