MGM - Las Vegas Strip: Why Is It Open Right Now?
At 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, June 4, casinos in the state of Nevada began to reopen for the first time since Gov. Steve Sisolak (a Democrat) ordered the shutdown of the gambling industry and other non-essential businesses on March 17, after Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) moved to shut down all of their casinos on March 15.
At that moment, I was in line at the Golden Gate on downtown Fremont Street to be one of the first visitors to set foot in the casino post-lockdown. I spent the next 17 hours walking through reopened casinos downtown; on Boulder Highway; in downtown Henderson; through the local casinos Sunset Station, Green Valley Ranch, and Palace Station owned by Red Rock Resorts (NASDAQ: RRR); to Boyd Gaming's (NYSE: BYD) Orleans casino off-Strip; and then to the Strip casinos that began opening at 8 a.m., starting with the STRAT (formerly Stratosphere).
Image source: Getty Images.