Hialeah Casino Reopening
Hialeah Park Casino in South Florida will reopen on Friday with poker. Guests will be required to wear masks and have their temperature taken. No other details on the poker experience were immediately available. For more information on poker room reopenings, visit our Reopen webpage. Hialeah Not Ready To Reopen Just Yet. Categories: Health & Fitness, Local News, WFORTV. The city has created a fund to help small businesses.
Step back in time to an era of grand celebrations,manicured grounds with picturesque gardens, and 16th Century French Mediterranean... experience Hialeah Park! A South Florida mainstay for over 90 years, Hialeah Park has 200 acres of lush landscape and historic architecture. Known simply as “The World’s Most Beautiful Horse Race Course”, Hialeah Park is eternal, magnificent and iconic, while holding the distinction of being an Audubon Bird Sanctuary with Flamingos on site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will allow casinos to reopen Monday after an eight-week closure, lifting restrictions on the entertainment hubs on the same day he lets restaurants resume indoor dining.
Gimenez did not address the decision publicly, but his office issued a press release on the new order. The announced regulations prohibit drinks and food at slot machines and gambling tables, and customers must wear masks while playing. Like restaurant dining rooms, casinos must limit customers to 50% of maximum capacity.
The decision raises the stakes for Gimenez as he prepares for the second significant easing of COVID restrictions since the coronavirus crisis began in March. New COVID cases at Miami-Dade hospitals peaked in mid-July, and have been declining since. The two-week average of COVID tests coming back positive dipped under 10% this week, falling below the rate the county considers acceptable.
Using emergency powers in May and June, he ended about two months of closures he had imposed on thousands of businesses across Miami-Dade, including casinos and restaurants. At the time, COVID cases were on the decline and hospitals weren’t getting swamped by patients with the virus.
That was already changing in early June, when daily COVID hospital intakes dipped under 40 new patients per day. The trend surged from there, approaching 150 new patients a day by July 4.
Before and after the July Fourth weekend, Gimenez imposed a package of new restrictions, including a countywide mask mandate and the closure of casinos, movie theaters, banquet halls and restaurant dining rooms.
He also imposed at 10 p.m. curfew on travel countywide, a policy restaurants pushed to ease in order to generate more dinner sales at the outdoor tables allowed to remain open. Gimenez said he wanted to keep the curfew in place at least through the Labor Day weekend.
On Tuesday, Gimenez announced plans to lift the restrictions on indoor dining, starting Monday. The new rules require masks for customers unless they’re seated and eating or drinking. While the previous cap on seating was four people to a table, Gimenez increased the limit to six once dining rooms reopen. Also this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted state rules restricting fans at Hard Rock Stadium, saying up to 13,000 people could attend games.
The Miccosukee casino, which sits on tribal land in Miami-Dade and follows federal rules, has been open during the county’s mandated casino closure. The casino industry has pressed Gimenez to let it resume operations.
Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expect at Florida International University and an unpaid adviser to Gimenez on COVID, said she considers reopening casinos and indoor dining to be risky.
“My perspective on this is if we do it, we have to have such strong messaging to the community that we’re not doing this because it’s totally safe,” she said. “We’re doing this because it’s an economic need. We need you to really follow the guidelines.”
Gimenez is the Republican candidate for Congress in Florida’s 26th Congressional District, challenging freshman Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. The two county commissioners running to replace him, Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr. and Daniella Levine Cava, said they both supported the decision.
“With so many industries opening and the stadium allowed 13,000 guests, these businesses —many family-owned — should not be treated differently,” Levine Cava said.
Hialeah Casino Reopening San Diego
Bovo, until this year a longtime consultant for the Hialeah Park casino, praised Gimenez for allowing more businesses to open. “The best stimulus plan,” he said. “The more people back to work the better.”
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