Tonya Hairston Driver didn’t know what to expect. Even though she had been to the Apache Casino and Hotel countless times, it had been more than two months since she had stepped foot on the property.
But when the Fort Sill Apache Tribe Economic Development Authority Board of Trustees authorized the reopening for May 21 under new stricter COVID-19 guidelines, she wanted to be there.
“At first, I wasn’t planning on going back to the casino so soon after reopening but as time drew near, I was getting excited,” Driver said. “The only apprehension or concern was about how the casino planned on managing the large amounts of people. When I read their statement about the measures they have taken to ensure our health and safety, I was curious how it was going to work.”
Driver wasn’t the only one who may have been curious or excited.
“When we opened the door yesterday morning, we had people there starting to line up as early as 7:30 in the morning, and we weren’t even open until 10 o’clock,” said Lee Bayless, the Events Center Manager at the Apache Casino and Hotel.
To put themselves in a position to where they could get back to work under phase one of their reopening plan, officials had to first make the environment safe for their customers.
“The first thing is the time that we were closed for the eight weeks, we did an extremely deep cleaning of everything on the premises from taking machines apart, dusting out the insides of them to cleaning every inch of carpet and every touchable surface in the place,” Bayless said. “We’re already known as one of the cleanest casinos in the state, so it wasn’t difficult to go a step further.”
Yet, the staff knew they had to do more to meet the guidelines set up by the state for businesses to reopen.
“We installed plenty of hand sanitizers everywhere. We added numerous partitions between a lot of the games,” Bayless said. “So somebody sitting at one seat at a machine would have a clear plastic curtain dividing them and somebody sitting next to them. We instituted a policy that face masks are required for every person on the premises, whether it’s a team member or a guest. We also instituted a no smoking policy for the entire property, not just a small section of the casino.”
The property also instituted other measures such as telling guests they will need to practice 6-foot social distancing from other guests not in their group, while standing in lines and moving around the property.
To accomplish the needed social distancing, many of the games have been removed from the floor or made inoperable.
“We’d already painted lines every six feet apart, both directions. We use two main entrances from the casino,” Bayless said. “So when they approach the security desk, they get their temperature taken and they get a few screening questions about whether they have symptoms, whether they’ve been around anybody with symptoms. And if they answer the appropriate way, they’re allowed into the casino.”
The only time customers are asked to pull down their masks is when they enter so a photo can be taken.
“I thought that the new precautions were great,” Driver said. “Mask requirement, 100 percent smoke-free and social distancing while in the casino made the atmosphere even better. I can’t think of anything else that I would want the casino to do. I thought that they had implemented the new safety guidelines for the customer pretty well.”
Bayless said it has been a pretty smooth process to start out. However, there has been a small percentage who have not liked some of the new restrictions and guidelines they have put in place.
“We knew there would be some mixed reaction,” Bayless said. “There’s smokers and nonsmokers, and there’s always a lifelong battle of trying to battle the cigarette smoke in some places. But we felt that if people are going to be smoking a cigarette and exhaling, smoke into the air and this COVID-19 could possibly be airborne or moisture born you’re just allowing somebody to blow their smoke into the air. the majority of the response has been overwhelmingly positive about the fact that we care enough to do that. Even though it’s going to make a couple of people possibly go somewhere else.”
The new hours of operation for the casino is 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. According to Bay- less, the next eight hours are for daily cleaning and disinfecting the property.
Even though the casino has had a line of people waiting to get in, they are not running at full capacity. They are taking the reopening slow when it comes to how many customers they are letting in.
“The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines said that we could operate up to 50 percent capacity. Our property is a little more conservative and we were operating at a little more 30 to 35 percent capacity on the floor, just so it wouldn’t be packed. We’re not trying to maximize the dollar as much as maintain the safety and still offer a fun gaming experience for people. And so we were having probably a maximum of 350 or so people on the floor. Once we met that capacity, then we were taking telephone numbers for people and say- ing, hey, you can wait in your car and go do some errands. And we’ll send you a text when you’re allowed to come in.”
According to Bayless, this will be the system going forward for a while.
“We’re not looking to push the curve and maximize every inch of the ability to take advantage of what they’re saying that we can do,” Bayless said. “The Apache Casino Hotel’s reputation is stellar in the state from its friendliness and its cleanliness. And we certainly want to make sure that we maintain that and not jeopardize that reputation just on the fact of trying to squeeze a few more people in to try to get more business. We get plenty of business and people are happy to come there because of that.”
The casino has tried to plan for everything, but they know there will be bumps along the way. But if a customer or employee comes down with COVID-19, they do have a contingency plan.
“We have a process that we’ve already instituted. To have a certain set of steps for confidentiality and making sure that other properties don’t necessarily copy every step that we’re doing, I can’t tell you all the details, but we do have backup plans,” Bayless said. “Most of our employees have been tested, especially the tribal members. They seem to have a higher rate according to the national statistics for Native Americans being struck by COVID-19. So far, we’re above the curve on monitoring everything, but we do have a process in place in case that arises. That’s why we’re going the extra step to make sure to keep it so clean and healthy and safe right now.”
According to Bayless, the contingency plan does involve monitoring patterns, finding out who people have visited and what areas they contacted.
“Casinos have a wealth of security systems and surveillance systems that they have access to, to track pathways,” Bayless said. “I don’t think that would be a problem.”
More reopening phases are still planned as time goes on. But the initial reaction has seemed to have positive.
“I had so much fun,” Driver said. “The air was clean. It was great to not smell smoke and not have people hanging over your shoulder while you are gambling. I will definitely be going back.”