“So our advocacy to give sports its due under Covid19 protocols should see results we hope by next week. See if you speak up and make your points and collectively ask we can get results. Thanks minister for getting the process started. We await positive outcomes. For me casino was the last thing I expected open …. but if it opened then it means all else is safe…. otherwise Gov would not have opened it , right?” – Audrey Matura Belizean lawyer and social acitivist.
After more than a year of closure, casinos, and gaming establishments have been reopened to the public. The shutdown of those establishments last year had caused scores of Belizeans to lose their employment.
Prime Minister John Briceño said that his government is trying to gradually reopen all the country’s establishments, enterprises and institutions, since citizens need to get back to work.“We have COVID under control, and let’s pray that we keep it that way, but people have to go back to work, and so the casinos employ hundreds of people. And so, we felt as a Cabinet that it is time to be able to allow them to open under strict safety guidelines and standards: social distancing, mask-wearing and everything that goes along with that,” Hon. Briceño shared.
Under the new Covid-19 regulations that were introduced through a statutory instrument that came into effect on April 15, there are several required conditions and regulations that casinos must comply with, in order for a safe reopening to take place.
Firstly, social distancing and mask-wearing protocols must be adhered to at all times by both patrons and employees.
The owners of the casinos must ensure that gaming machines are arranged to facilitate social distancing as well and they must install hand sanitation stations at the entrance of the casino room and across the gaming floor. Touchless hand-sanitizing dispensers must be installed at each gaming table, and seating around those tables must be limited to observe social distancing.
The casino or gaming establishment must be sanitized twice a day, the gaming machines must be sanitized after each use, and signs reminding patrons of the protocols must be placed throughout the establishment.
A log of patrons’ names, contact numbers, and temperatures must be recorded by the establishments, and every patron must be checked when entering the establishment for at least 30 days.