Most large casinos closing in Western Washington

As Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Sunday the closure of restaurants, bars, hair salons, movie theaters and a number of other businesses to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, tribes across Western Washington are closing casinos.

Many casinos told KIRO 7 they need to do their part even though they’re sovereign and exempt from the governor’s restrictions.

Originally, as businesses started to close, it appeared that the casinos would not follow suit.

Even when the governor said last week that events and gatherings of more than 250 people would have to end, many people wondered if that would apply to casinos since they regularly get that many people coming to a gaming room.

But once the business closures were announced Sunday, and gatherings were limited to less than 50 people, the dominoes started to fall and eventually resulted in tribes across Western Washington closing their casinos.

The head of Snoqualmie Casino explained part of what's at stake last week, especially with the closure.

“There are a lot of people who depend on this casino for their well-being. We have 1,100 employees where this is their livelihood,” said Stanford Le of Snoqualmie Casino.

The Snoqualmie Tribe tweeted about the closure which will begin Wednesday and go at least until the end of March. The Lummi and Muckleshoot tribes will also shut their casino operations for the next few weeks, and the Tulalip, Suquamish and Puyallup tribes are doing the same.

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