Coeur d’Alene Casino; Photo Credit: Casino Journal

As the many states in the US are now regulated online casinos, it is now 100% legal to download to your mobile device a sports-betting, poker or casino app, and gamble safely and securely from wherever you are within state limits.

Many states already legalized online casinos, and there are others that are in the process of signing bills into law.  New Jersey and Pennsylvania and West Virginia are amongst the leading states that let you gamble legally by installing casino or sports betting apps, or visiting one of the many online casino websites that are regulated and supervised by the state.

But as much as the online casino apps and websites are now increasing their hold and gaining more new customers every day, the land-based casinos in the United States are shut down due to safety and health concerns amid the COVID-10 pandemic, and are thus suffering major losses.  But as life is slowly getting back on track in many states, land-based casinos in the US are carefully begging to open their doors to the public again.

The first ones that are leading the return to normal life are the tribal casinos.  Tribal casinos share their takings with the states they are in, and the gaming done on their premises is regulated by the federal government, as opposed to online casino apps and websites that are regulated and supervised at state level.  Still, their sovereignty allows them to self-govern and take decisions and actions such as reopening their casino doors and greeting players again.

And so, five of well-known tribal casinos opened on Wednesday, a few smaller casinos have possibly also opened this week, but have not made their plans public in order to avoid long lines and gatherings as a result of the coronavirus safety measures that are still in place.  The American Gaming Association has a pretty cool casino tracker on their website that lets you track which casinos in the US are closed, as well as tracking the current status of casinos on a map.  We found that tracker to be pretty cool, and at the time of this article written, 26 out of the 989 tribal casinos in America are open, and 963 remain closed.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic hitting US shores, tribal casinos were generating over $33 billion every year, while the other commercial casinos took in an annual figure of over $45 million.  Shutting down these land-based casinos is a great hit to the community in terms of both tax revenues, as well as the direct impact of hundreds of thousands of employees.

The following casinos are currently open:

Northern Guest Resort & Casino: located in Washington State, on the outskirts of Spokane, this casino that is owned and operated by the Kalispel Indian Community opened on May 5^th.  More than 1,800 tribal workers have been furloughed, and the opening is expected to bring many of them back to work.

Coeur D’Alene Casino Resort Hotel: located in Worley Idaho, this casino opened on May 1^st.  It’s owned and operated by the Coeur D’Alene Tribe, and had a pretty big crowd celebrating its opening night, including famous poker-player Kevin MacPhee.

7 Clans Casino Resort – First Council: the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma is planning to reopen its casino that is located in the City of NewKirk on May 15^th. 

Tonkawa Hotel & Casino: Another casino in Oklahoma that is owned and operated by the Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma reopened on May 1^st. 

Commercial casinos are expected to follow the Tribal path, as some are legally allowed to reopen on the first week of May, and some have already opened.  The last casino region in America that shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic was in Deadwood, South Dakota.  These are now also opening gradually as the Deadwood City commission voted to allow the opening of casinos, amongst other business in the city.

There are critics that consider this ease of restriction of social distancing as a risky move, but all casinos are complying with safety measures that require all patrons and staff to wear masks, deep and thorough cleaning, distance of separation between people, and even infrared-temperature checks.  As some say that COVID-19 is bound to hit again soon, there is no guarantee that casinos will remain open.  But for now this is a well-needed, optimistic return to normal life.

But if you are still not sure you want to leave home, or simply live too far away from the land-based casinos that are now opening, you can still download a casino app and have some great casino fun at home, where it’s not only legal, but also safe and secure.  And there are great bonuses waiting for you, so try casino apps now.