Casinos in Atlantic City, including the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, are back in business today and are welcoming guests.

 

There are a lot of changes, but at the very least – the casinos are getting up and running after a nearly four-month layoff.

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"I'm super comfortable," says Terril Tate, of Toms River. "It's more comfortable than being in the house. It's just like being in the store, everywhere else you have to wear a mask no matter what so."

Some of the changes include no smoking, no drinking alcohol on the casino floor, no indoor dining and a maximum capacity of just 25%.

"You know the chips and cards are obviously very important,” says Jim Allen, president and CEO of Hard Rock International. "One of the great things about reduced capacity is we don't have every table open, so we can continuously rotate the chips out and make sure they are properly cleaned and sanitize them in the back of the house area and continue to move forward to create a safe environment for our guests, and most importantly our employees."

Hard Rock is offering what it calls a Safe + Sound Reopening Plan, including some of the 2,200 employees back to work. This includes:

A Safe + Sound Clean Team to clean and disinfecting surfaces throughout the complex.

All guests and team members will be required to wear face coverings.

Thermal imaging will monitor the number of guests entering the property and take the temperature of all guests and team members.

More than 200 hand sanitizer dispensers will be placed in all high-traffic areas.

The property has purchased more than 1,000 new air filters that will frequently be replaced with 100% outside air flow into the building to increase the quality of air circulation.

"Plexiglass social distancing," says Allen. "You'll hear me say it's great to be in the same business because we bought hundreds of thousands of signs to make sure people are aware of their environment and their surroundings."

Officials at the Borgata have decided not to open at all until Gov. Phil Murphy decides it is safe to offer indoor food and beverage, but casinos such as Caesar's, Bally's, the Tropicana and others are all gearing up for openings during the holiday weekend.