Game on

Texas billionaire's glitzy hotel and casino rolls the dice with big reopening

The Golden Nugget hotel and casino is back in business.

Photo courtesy of Golden Nugget

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta is betting on travel-hungry Texans looking to brave the pandemic and escape the confines of home with the reopening of his Golden Nugget Lake Charles hotel, pool, and restaurants on Friday, May 15.

High rollers and gamblers, take note: The casino — which boasts 75 table games, a high-limit salon, a poker room, and 1,600 slot machines — will reopen on Monday, May 18.

Several Golden Nugget restaurants will also reopen their dining rooms on May 15, including Landry's Seafood House, Vic & Anthony’s, Saltgrass Steak House, and Bill’s Bar & Burger.

The splash-worthy H20 Pool and Lazy River, private beach, marina, and all retail will also open on May 15. Other amenities will open based on business demands, according to a press release. Also a major draw (forgive the pun), the 7,000-yard golf course, will be available for tee time from 8 am to 4 pm Wednesdays through Sundays.

All facets of the Golden Nugget operation will follow COVID-19 safety guidelines as suggested by the Center for Disease Control, according to a statement.

According to Fertitta and Gerry Del Prete, senior vice president of gaming operations, the hotel/casino has worked with public health professionals on the reopening and will follow new safety protocols including:

Addressing team member and guest health
Maintaining temperature checkpoints
Ensuring physical distancing
Making hand washing and hand sanitizer available
Providing COVID-19 training and PPE equipment to staff
Requiring guests to wear masks on the gaming floor
Enhancing cleaning products and protocols in public spaces and guest rooms
Encouraging physical distancing on the casino floor (which will run at 25 percent)

The casino complex is in Lake Charles, Louisiana, about 345 miles from Dallas. Travelers can make reservations online or by calling 844-777-4653. (Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently ended the 14-day self-quarantine mandate for travelers entering Texas from Louisiana.)

Fertitta is the Houston-based owner and CEO of Golden Nugget Casinos, as well as the Landry’s restaurant chain and the Houston Rockets. In March, his Landry's, Inc. laid off approximately 40,000 workers across its casinos, hotels, and restaurants.

“We have anxiously awaited this reopening and look forward to welcoming the Lake Charles and surrounding communities back to our hotel and casino,” Fertitta says in a statement. “This is a step in the right direction to getting our employees back to work. We are following CDC, state and regulatory guidelines and taking all the prudent and essential measures to maintain a safe and clean environment for our guests and employees.”

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Holiday Travel News

American Airlines briefly halts flights nationwide for technical issue

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday due to a technical issue just as the Christmas travel season kicks into high gear.

American flights were cleared to fly by federal regulators about one hour after a national ground stop order was issued by federal regulators.

Just before 8 am Dallas time, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all American Airlines flights grounded in the U.S. at the airline’s request. American had reported a technical issue affecting its entire system with millions traveling for the holiday.
The ground stop, according to the time stamps on the FAA's orders, lasted exactly one hour.

American has not expanded on what technical issue grounded the flights and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The groundings couldn't come at a worse time for the millions of travelers expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2.

Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up.

In December 2022, Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Southwest was ordered to pay a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into the Christmas debacle of 2022.

Excluding the settlement, the nation’s fourth-biggest airline by revenue said the meltdown cost it more than $1.1 billion in refunds and reimbursements, extra costs and lost ticket sales over several months.

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