Vegas Mayor Bets Like Degenerate Gambler Against COVID-19

Roger LeBlanc (author of The Punter’s Tale)

Last week Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman upped the ante in the “Reopen America” poker tournament. In interviews with CNN and MSNBC she insisted casinos should reopen as soon as possible regardless of the health risks. And the good mayor wasn’t bluffing.

In those interviews Goodman pushed all her chips into the “To Hell With Safety” pot with statements like these:

• “We should assume 100% of the population already carries the coronavirus.”
• “This isn’t China. This is Las Vegas, Nevada.”
• “We would love to be the placebo side [of an experiment to see if COVID-19 is more harmful to an unprotected population].”

Let’s examine her statements as people who recognize that math extends beyond things you can count with 10 fingers, and that science involves more than random thoughts provoked by a few cocktails:

• 100% of the U.S. population carries the coronavirus. For this statement to be true, the virus would’ve spread from a few people arriving from China in January to about 350 million people in the U.S. in April. That’d make it the most aggressive virus in human history. And how does the mayor deal with the fact that most people who’ve been tested have tested negative? Let me suggest a term Goodman can use to sidestep that problem in her next interview: just refer to these negative testers as bio-liars. Or better yet, refer to them as un-American, fear-mongering bio-liars. That should bring the tourists pouring back into town, or at least the ones who think they can win at roulette.
• This isn’t China; it’s Las Vegas, Nevada. People of different nationalities aren’t people of different species. (It’s scary that we still have to explain that to people in positions of power.) Unlike Goodman, the virus is color blind and culture indifferent. Statistics show that countries that took extreme preventive measures suffered the least. Countries that reacted slowly or sloppily got hit the hardest. Las Vegas is located in one of the hardest hit countries. Maybe Goodman meant that Vegas, as a place where odds on most games guarantee people will lose, is the more suitable epicenter for the virus.
• We would love to be the placebo side [of some ghastly Darwinian experiment]. Someone should inform Goodman she doesn’t need to volunteer her city’s workers and tourists as virus fodder. The protected vs. unprotected experiment in the U.S. has already been completed. On March 26 Hawaii implemented stay-at-home orders for its residents as well as mandatory 14-day quarantines for incoming tourists. The number of people flying into Hawaii dropped from 850,000 in April 2019 to under 5,000 in April 2020. As a result of protecting its residents, the state has the fourth fewest coronavirus cases in the country. Hawaii joins Vietnam and Taiwan as places with the most extreme preventive measures and lowest death rates from the virus. Phone city hall! Removing protections against COVID-19 just surpassed keno as the worst bet in the house.

To summarize the available evidence: you probably don’t have the virus yet, but you do face risks similar to or greater than those faced by people in China. And even if you fly to Vegas and find yourself at a crowded poker table joyfully raking in a pile of sweaty chips, you might not be the winner you think you are.

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