Casinos: Almost four in ten of the public want to see mask compliance globally

COVID-19 restrictions across the world have now relaxed for various sectors. And that means that in many markets, the doors of casinos have opened, even if those in others are still waiting.

But even if there are differences between markets, COVID-19-related compliance tends not to differ much across businesses. Therefore, following social distancing and wearing masks may well be a part of a casino’s rules even once vaccination programs have caught up throughout the world. But are visitors and gamblers comfortable with hiding their faces behind a mask in casinos?

A recent survey by YouGov shows that 37% of the population globally would like to see staff and employees wearing face masks in casinos even after 60% of their country's population has been vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines. More than half of the population in Mexico (55%), Spain (53%) and Singapore (52%) want staff in casinos to follow mask compliance.

In the UK, nearly 70% of the population has already had its first dose of the COVID vaccine. Casinos, bingo halls and other public places are set to open as the government moves to the next phase of its exit from Covid-19 lockdown. And when that does happen, nearly half of all respondents (46%) say they would want the staff in casinos to wear masks.

The USA is not too far behind in wishing to see mask compliance in casinos even as mask-wearing generally has been eased down. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has relaxed its guidance, saying that fully vaccinated people can now drop the use of masks in public places. In Las Vegas, casinos have been allowing fully vaccinated guests to enter mask-less. Yet despite this, 45% of Americans would prefer casino staff to don a mask.

Australia too has relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, yet 27% of all respondents in Australia would want casino staff to wear mask. A similar percentage (27%) of Indonesians agree, followed by Sweden (23%) and Denmark (21%) towards the bottom of the list.

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Methodology: The data is based on interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 927 and 8,221 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in April 2021. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.