Pennsylvania’s casinos are going back under pandemic lockdown, while Maryland’s venues will see their capacity halved (again). 

On Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced new pandemic lockdown rules that will see 12 state casinos shut their doors effective 12:01am on Saturday (12). The state’s one other casino, Rivers Casino Philadelphia, was shut on November 20 under that city’s new ‘Safer at Home’ restrictions. 

At present, Rivers Philadelphia is tipped to reopen on January 2, while the other 12 casinos won’t be allowed to welcome customers until 8am on Monday, January 4. The new rules apply not just to casinos but also virtually any venue offering indoor entertainment.  

Wolf, who made his announcement from quarantine after himself testing positive for COVID-19, used words such as ‘frustrating’ and ‘painful’ to describe the new lockdown, but the situation was sufficiently “dire” to warrant “further mitigation efforts” after the state recorded around 1k COVID-related deaths in the past week.