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The Start Of The Vaccine Distribution Gets Gambling Experts In The Mood

Article by : Helen Dec 16, 2020

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Updated: Feb 3, 2023

News about the COVID-19 vaccine has suddenly broken into the news tickers. According to the official data, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson are the biggest companies that are going to distribute the first portions of the vaccine, starting from the end of 2020. Of course, this piece of news has had an immediate impact on the spirit of gambling experts and analysts.

If the vaccine works as everyone expects, the gambling industry may return to normal much sooner than it was previously expected. Many casino executives, gaming analysts, and gambling regulators are now taking an optimistic view of how fast the market may recover, provided the vaccine is distributed as it has been promised. They are looking for a possible full recovery by 2022, which definitely beats all the previous expectations, according to which a return to the normal state would be possible for Las Vegas gambling not sooner than in 2023.

There’s not so much time left to wait for the first results of the vaccine distribution to be established. Nevada, for example, is supposed to receive the first portions of the coronavirus vaccine in the middle of this month, with the first doses being sent to those who are suffering from acute COVID-19 and those who are looking after the vectors. These include doctors, nurses, hospitalized people, and all those who are at a high risk of being infected. Widespread distribution of the vaccine will most likely be unavailable until spring 2021.

The director of the Las Vegas Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), Stephen Miller, claims that the start of the vaccine distribution process will drastically boost the fragile local economy.

We lost more jobs quicker than ever before. We added more jobs quicker than ever before. We’ve got a way to go, but there’s no doubt about it: the end of the virus is in view. So, too, will the end of pain with the Las Vegas, Reno economies, and the Nevada economy overall.

During the meeting, Miller said that they expect to see the recovery begin next summer, and the “weird memories” about COVID-19 will probably disappear sometime a year later. Gambling venues and other entertainment properties in Las Vegas will return back to their normal visitation levels in 2022. This is when Las Vegas will be “just fine.”

Stephen Miller is far not the only expert who takes the optimistic position. Christopher Thornberg, the co-founder of Beacon Economics, claims that recovering from COVID-19 will be faster and easier than recovering from the global financial crisis 2008. The CEO of Wynn Resorts, Matt Maddox, also believes that Las Vegas will see an explosion of gambling activities very soon thanks to pent-up demand during all those lockdowns. It seems like Maddox has a point, as many US gambling venues that reopened after the long shutdown experienced an immediate spike of visitors. Many of the latter were even ready to wait hours in line for a chance to give a shot to their favorite casino games. There were also cases when casinos that were operating at a reduced capacity reported monthly revenues that were higher compared to the same period the previous year.

Anyway, despite all those positive expectations, there’s still much work to be done to make the numbers return to the normal level. For instance, the unemployment rate of Nevada is twice as much as the national average. Many ex-casino employees are still sitting home and waiting for the call from the casino executive to return to their workplaces.