The casinos opened as scheduled at 12:01 a.m. on June 4, thus ending the Las Vegas shutdown at 79 days. Customers lined up outside waiting for the doors to open. In the bars, it was like a mini-New Year’s Eve, with players positioned at video poker machines and counting down to midnight. About 75% of the casinos are now open, with the majority of those that aren’t among some of the biggest on the Strip. New places are opening steadily, however.

Though they didn’t open on Day 1, The LINQ and Excalibur are now operating. Opening dates have also been announced for Westgate Las Vegas on Thursday; Aria, Mandalay Bay and Luxor on June 25; and OYO on Aug. 1.

Major resorts that remain closed with their returns unknown include Mirage, Bally’s, Paris, The Cromwell, Planet Hollywood, Palms, Rio and downtown’s Main Street Station.

Pools are busy: The pools are busy, even though the big day club parties have been vastly toned down or, in most cases, absent completely. Lines formed on the weekend after capacity limitations were met, forcing would-be sunbathers to wait for earlier guests to leave. Accessing the pools is much easier during the week, when the crowds diminish significantly.

Masked dealers: Everywhere you go, the dealers are wearing masks; however, they aren’t wearing gloves as some thought they might. Almost all card games are dealt face-up, so the cards are never handled by the players. Dice at the crap tables are cleaned routinely.

Question: Are couples allowed to play the slots side-by-side?

Answer: It depends on where you are, as no one seems to be completely sure of the rules and they vary. In most places you can play side-by-side on machines if you’re related or if you live in the the same household. Of course, that’s assuming that neighboring machines are turned on. At many casinos, every second machine is turned off, so there’s no getting around it there.

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