On Monday Lucky Eagle Casino & Hotel CEO Lisa Miles announced the casino would be suspending operations effective Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. — a decision that fell in line with the gambling industry as casinos all around the country began to close up shop early in the week.
Although the decision was aligned with the national trend, Miles said the casino and the Chehalis Tribe did their own due diligence.
“Honestly, I would characterize it as an independent decision,” Miles said. “I will tell you that our tribal council and government met earlier in the day on Monday before several of the others and we made the decision to close and it’s solely based on the safety of tribal members and our guests, our team members and the local community.”
Tribal casinos surrounding the Lucky Eagle Casino have also suspended operations, including the Emerald Queen Casinos in Tacoma and Fife at midnight on Monday, the Nisqually Red Wind Casino in Olympia on Tuesday at 4 a.m. and the Little Creek Casino in Shelton on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
“I think we can all admit that this environment has been changing by the hour as opposed to the day or the week,” Miles said. “Right now we are planned on being shut down and reopening April 1. We’re just monitoring the open cases and information coming from the World Health Organization and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).”
Miles said employees of the Lucky Eagle Casino have not been laid off and will be paid through the end of the month. According to a Lucky Eagle Casino press release, employees will be paid at their base rate based on the average hours they worked in the previous four weeks.
“We’re also encouraging (employees) to consider unemployment just because of the uncertainty of what this will look like from a long term perspective,” Miles said. “We’re trying to give them as much information as we can to help them through this time of uncertainty.”
Miles added that asking employees to consider unemployment is purely a proactive measure with the Washington Employment Security Department being flooded with unemployment applications.
Because of the evolving nature of the coronavirus outbreak, Miles didn’t want to talk about what is next in terms of what the contingency plan is for the casino should they deem it necessary to remain closed past April 1.
“Unfortunately, this world is ever changing rapidly, day-by-day,” she said. “The tribe, the casino, we’re having those conversations, no decisions have been made. We’re trying to plan for contingencies but there’s nothing I can announce right now because no decisions have been made. We do care about the viability of the Chehalis tribe, we care about the viability of our team members and their families … We’re a very large employer in this area.”
