Company chasing April target of 10,000 shots

Caesars Entertainment is revving up its COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Las Vegas by offering free inoculations to family members of employees and opening additional vaccination sites with increased operational days.

Caesars shared the news on Tuesday via Twitter, adding it would also extend vaccination to “select third party employees at Las Vegas properties”:

Caesars is working in partnership with Albertsons, one of the largest food and drug retailers in the US, to add employee family members aged 16 and over to the vaccination eligibility roster.

The Reno-based casino operator stated last week that it had an April target of 10,000 COVID-19 shots.

Nevada casinos eyeing conditional capacity increase

Caesars’ move follows the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) disclosing last week that casinos exhibiting a “measurable and material” effort to vaccinate employees would be under consideration for expanded capacity limits starting May 1. The date is when Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak’s Roadmap to Recovery transitions to its next phase.

The NGCB took to Twitter to share a regulatory notice to its licensees of the conditions attached to the May 1 transition:

Caesars is just one of Sin City’s big casino operators that have started a mass drive to inoculate workers in recent weeks. The company originally said last week that it would open a vaccination clinic for Vegas Strip workers at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino on April 8.

Following yesterday’s announcement, Caesars-owned Bally’s Las Vegas pips the Rio to the shot-providing post, as it rolls out vaccines starting April 7 at 10am from its Grand Ballroom. Caesars Palace opens its Palace Ballroom for shots on April 9. The Sunset Ballroom at Flamingo Las Vegas follows suit on April 13.

The secretary-treasurer for the Nevada-based Culinary Workers Union, Geoconda Argüello-Kline, said her organization “applauds Caesars Entertainment and the hospitality industry for making on-site vaccinations available to employees and for ensuring that workers have adequate access to get vaccinated.”

Operators in full vaccination mode for hospitality workers

A spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) said last week that the state had set aside almost 28,000 vaccinations for hospitality workers.

MGM Resorts International began inoculating its Vegas Strip employees at its Mandalay Bay resort convention center on March 30. Station Casinos started offering vaccine doses to its employees at its Boulder Station, Green Valley Ranch, Palace Station, Red Rock, Santa Fe Station, and Sunset Station properties from April 6. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sands, and Wynn Resorts have employee vaccination clinics already up and running.

According to officials, fully vaccinated people in the Silver State make up over 21% of the population.