- Pennsylvania’s casinos will receive the green light to fully open on Memorial Day.
- There will still be a mask mandate in place until further notice.
- Over 50% of PA adults have begun the vaccination process.
LAS VEGAS - Pennsylvania’s casinos have been given the green light to fully reopen in light of increased COVID-19 vaccine availability in the state.
As of Memorial Day, Pennsylvania’s casinos will no longer have restrictions on the number of people who can be within them at any given time.
These restrictions were initially put into place in order to counteract the infectious nature of COVID-19.
Now that vaccines are becoming more widespread - more than 50% of PA adults are at least partially through the vaccination process at the time of writing - Governor Tom Wolf has seen fit to announce the removal of capacity restrictions.
There are still restrictions on masking, however, as the mask mandates in Pennsylvania will not be lifted until 70% of adults in the state are vaccinated.
Effective May 31, we are lifting COVID mitigation orders.
The masking order will be lifted when 70% of Pennsylvania adults are fully vaccinated.
Help us lift the masking order sooner. Find a vaccine appointment near you: https://t.co/4UeI1Bx6rO. pic.twitter.com/o2vebK3lot
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) May 4, 2021
Pennsylvania is getting closer and closer to that 70% mark, but they have not reached it, which means that anyone wishing to take advantage of the lowered casino restrictions will need to mask up.
Several other COVID-19 mitigation orders are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future.
These orders include a ban on indoor smoking, which was previously allowed on up to half of every casino floor.
Pennsylvania’s 14 brick and mortar casinos struggled during the pandemic, in part due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic, and in part due, obviously, to the pandemic itself.
For about the first three months of the pandemic, all the casinos in the state were shut down, and only reopened in June of 2020.
Wolf’s orders mark something of a return to normalcy thanks to the efficacy of the various COVID-19 vaccines.
Online gambling and sports betting boomed when it returned to availability, and PA’s gambling operators could be hoping for a similar boom here.