Workers want mandated temp checks for casino patrons

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Five Atlantic City casinos are not physically checking the temperatures of guests entering the property, workers said as they pushed New Jersey's governor to require the casinos to do so to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

In an online press conference Thursday, members of Local 54 of the Unite-Here union said four casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment — Caesars, Harrah's, Bally's, and the Tropicana — are not physically screening casino guests for a fever before letting them onto the property. A fever is one sign of potential infection with the coronavirus.

The Ocean casino has been doing verbal screenings as well.

The remaining four casinos — Hard Rock, Golden Nugget, Borgata and Resorts — have been taking temperatures, employees said.

The workers called on Gov. Phil Murphy to mandate physical temperature checks for anyone entering a casino.

The four Caesars casinos say they use a verbal screening process to question guests.

But the union says they don't even do that at all times. Donna DeCaprio, the union's secretary-treasurer, said the union has documented at least 180 instances of casinos failing to verbally screen guests since most of the casinos reopened in the first week of July.

She also said the union has documented 75 instances of hotel rooms not being thoroughly cleaned daily as called for under protocols formulated and agreed to by the casinos themselves.

“We're not doing a good job even being partially open,” said Jason McKnight, a bartender at Harrah's. “The rooms aren't being cleaned on a daily basis the way they are supposed to. This is a lot of people in an enclosed place, and we're not rising to the challenge.”

Caesars Entertainment responded in a statement that its procedures were developed...