Jake's 58 among NY casinos allowed to reopen Sept. 9

Among the safety precautions are 25% capacity, mandatory mask wearing, advanced air filtration systems and players must be six feet apart.

News 12 Staff

Sep 3, 2020, 7:05 PM

Updated 1,503 days ago

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced casinos in New York will be allowed to reopen Sept. 9 after the COVID-19 pandemic kept them closed for several months.
Jake's 58 in Islandia is among those that will finally be allowed to let people in as soon as Tuesday, but there are several conditions.
Among the safety precautions are 25% capacity, mandatory mask wearing, advanced air filtration systems and machines must be six feet apart or have partitions.
There will also be no beverage service on the gaming floor.
Jake's 58 manager Delaware North and the Suffolk OTB released a joint statement saying, "We are ready, and we look forward to bringing back our employees and welcoming our guests." They added that it has even more safety protocols in place.
Jake's 58 says the casino will open Sept. 9, but the hotel will open at a later date.
Despite all of the rules in place, Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone says casinos returning will be a big boost to county tax returns.
"The purpose of the OTB really is to support racing, but also to bring revenues to the local government to support local taxpayers and residents," says Bellone. "And so those revenues that come into the OTB through the casino ultimately will make their way to the county and so that's going to help with the fiscal situation."
Nassau County will also benefit from the casino reopening.
"It will actually help Nassau County's finances, because through our OTB, we get some of the money from the Queens casino," says Nassau Executive Laura Curran.
Long Island tourism officials say the reopening of casinos is a step in the right direction. Now they hope other hospitality-based businesses will get to reopen as well.
"Really critical to Long Island's tourism industry - we have catering halls who are family-owned businesses for generations that are still closed," says Kristen Jarnagin, of Discover Long Island.