D'IBERVILLE, MS – While the casinos in Mississippi remain closed with no date set for reopening, LuAnn Pappas, CEO of the Scarlet Pearl in D’Iberville spoke with Fox10 News about the business and the changes being implemented for the eventual reopening.

“This is the time of the year where we would be very busy and typically 5,000 people pass through here every day,” Pappas told Fox10 News during a tour of the empty Scarlet Pearl casino.

“It’s been very long and obviously when we all closed we thought we would be closed a lot less longer than we have been,” Pappas said, Fox10 reported.

During the closure, “the Scarlet Pearl is busy preparing for a new normal,” Fox10 reported, adding that “they are putting in plexiglass partitions at table games and slot machines.”

Pappas told Fox10, “We have created all of these social distancing panels in an effort to be able to open as many units as possible. That said, it’s still every other slot machine and only three people at a table game if they allow us to open table games, but it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen.”

Employees will have their temperature checked regularly and will be required to wear masks and gloves while they work, Fox10 reported, adding that customers will also have the option of having their temperature taken and will be given masks and gloves to wear if they prefer.

Pappas told Fox 10, “To stand here and say as the leader of this property I don’t have concerns would not be true, I do. However, I believe that the economy cannot continue, it cannot sustain itself. You cannot continue to have people unemployed.”

“The Mississippi Gaming Commission is expected to release its reopening guidelines this week,” Fox10 reported, noting that the Gulf Coast “casinos employ more than 10,000 people, the vast majority have been furloughed during the casino closures.”