Exploring the world's best food, restaurants, and all-you-can-eat buffets. EVERYTHING Las Vegas FAQ FAQ2 Gamble Responsibly Gamble Responsibly 2 Group Pull Payout% High Limit VS Low Limit Holidays Are For Giving How I Started How Marco And. There are so many fun things to do in Las Vegas. With so many attractions and so little time, you’re probably wondering where to start. Want to drive Ferraris, shoot machine guns or go ziplining? Maybe other Las Vegas activities like taking in the best views of the Strip aboard the High Roller and checking out a museum are more your style.
© Caesars Palace Caesars Palace reopensIt’s a cause for celebration.
Las Vegas, one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, re-opened for business this week in some select hotel-casinos, with more scheduled to unlock the doors this coming week.
No, it’s not back to all its glory – the coronavirus pandemic that shut the city down in mid-March has wreaked havoc and has no doubt left a lasting legacy of change all over the world.
But Las Vegas is open again, and here’s what you need to know.
A Crowded Scene?
Las Vegas is a busy town, and it’s not just the gambling scene. Tourists flood the city year-round and, surprise surprise, quite a few of them will never wager a cent. They come for the world’s most famous singers who perform in residencies, for the Broadway shows, for the amazing array of restaurants helmed by the country’s greatest chefs, for a big weekend boxing match, to hit the spectacular pool parties (uh, a young person’s thing, to be sure), and so much more.
But if crowds aren’t your thing, maybe now is the time to go.
That was to be expected, of course. The city has only been open for four days. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ‘many table games and slot machines were not being used, there was little business at retail shops, and restaurants off the casino floor were not crowded. Bellagio had light foot traffic at one point and a calm casino floor. Four people waited to get inside the Louis Vuitton store as clerks controlled the number of shoppers, but most stores did not have many customers.’
As far as gambling, there are fewer seats to be had at table games – three players at blackjack, four at roulette and poker, and six at craps is the new normal for casinos.
And, according to USA Today, every other slot machine is generally turned off as casinos are temporarily limited to 50 percent capacity under new state gaming regulations.
Las Vegas is officially back. pic.twitter.com/EI3nXs2e5w
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 6, 2020Vegas has become famous for its pool parties during the summer season and, well, it’s summer season in a city that routinely pushes 100 degrees.
The pools were packed on the first Saturday of the reopening. The Review-Journal reported the line to get into the pool at The Flamingo was 50-feet deep.
Line to get inside the pool at @FlamingoVegas@[email protected]/4PQdBuXMQ7
— Jacob Orth (@JacobsVegasLife) June 5, 2020But here are the catches. One, pools all over Las Vegas are operating at 50 percent capacity to help maintain social distancing. Once the pools reach that capacity, the only way to get in is if somebody leaves.
More importantly, you better be a hotel guest. If you don’t have a room key-card, you can forget about using the pool for now.
Health And Safety Checks
As you enter casinos, temperature checks all over downtown Las Vegas.
Below is the Downtown Grand. They used hand held. Others had scanners/cameras. The D and Golden Gate had a wrist scanner. pic.twitter.com/02xrDv04hF
— Steve Cofield (@stevecofield) June 4, 2020At the Downtown Grand and at other hotels, guests must undergo a temperature check. Anyone whose temperature exceeds 100.3 degrees are not allowed to enter, but will be given a chance to cool off and bring the temperature down.
At numerous hotels and casinos there are hand sanitizing stations.
Casino workers and dealers are wearing masks and gloves and face shields, and free face masks are being handed out at virtually every hotel and casino.
But face masks aren’t mandatory for visitors.
Las Vegas Review-Journal staff and experts who toured casinos on Thursday and Friday said only about half of visitors were seen wearing masks.
Everything Las Vegas Newsletter
“We can educate (visitors) on the benefits of wearing a mask,” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak told the Review-Journal on Friday. “(Casinos) encourage their guests to, they provide them to the guests if they don’t have them with them, and I think that’s the best that we can do. … (But) I don’t want to have guests coming in here to have a good time and mandate that we wear a mask. A lot of these folks are coming from other areas where they don’t encourage masks as much as we do. So there’s an education process involved here, and we’re encouraging folks to do that.”
Even Caesar himself is doing that. The statue of the legendary leader of the Roman Empire at the entrance to Caesars Palace is wearing a gold mask.
Food
Many foodies come to Las Vegas to help satiate their discerning palates as some of the finest restaurants in the country run by some of the greatest chefs around.
Restaurants are open and will operate at reduced capacity to help maintain social distancing. But, for now, at the few hotels that opened this past week, buffets are not open yet.
More hotels and restaurants will be opening this coming week.
Attractions
Yes, you can go on the High Roller observation wheel, yes you can linger in front of the famous dancing water Bellagio fountains, and you can even ride the roller coaster at New York-New York hotel.
But you can’t catch a show just yet and you can’t spend $800 a bottle at nightclubs.
![Steve Steve](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/gallery/metofficegovuk/hero-images/weather/world/holiday-weather/las-vegas-usa.jpg)
Some Things Will Never Change
USA Today had a great take on the things that will never change about Las Vegas, some good and some not so good.
You can still get free drinks as long as you are gambling, a tradition that dates back to when Las Vegas was first created. You can even smoke on the casino floor.
But it’s still costly venture to hit Las Vegas. Resort fee surcharges, which can top $45 or $50 a night with tax at high-end hotels like Bellagio and Caesars Palace, remain. The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas is even raising its resort fee, from $44.22 to $51.02, in January. And if you need cash, Las Vegas casino ATMs are still charging $7.99 or $8.99 to withdraw your money – not to mention what your bank charges if you go out of network.
Gourmet ranch game. Of course, though times changed decades ago from when Las Vegas was the only place in the country where you could legally gamble, placing a few dollars on a hand of cards or a tiny bouncing ball or a spinning wheel is the city’s raison d'etre and will never change.
And on Friday, one day after the legendary Caesar’s Palace reopened, a visitor from Los Angeles hit the Let It Ride major progressive jackpot for $670,637.
Things To Do In Vegas
No, some things will never change.