Casino operator Eldorado Resorts has bowed to the inevitable and is planning to stop paying thousands of staff as the pandemic-related closures of its operations show no signs of lifting anytime soon.

On Thursday, CDC Gaming Reports revealed the contents of an Eldorado memo to its staff detailing plans to halt wages for employees at the company’s three casinos in Reno, Nevada, while health benefits will now be paid through June 30. The memo said the company expected the furlough to be “temporary (less than three months).”

Eldorado had previously committed to paying staff through Friday (10), despite the fact that the casinos have been shut since mid-March on the orders of state authorities. Similar memos have reportedly been issued to staff at all of Eldorado’s 23 casinos across 11 states.

Nevada’s governor recently extended his state’s closure order through the end of April and authorities in other states have suggested similar timelines for even considering reopening large public venues. Eldorado rival Boyd Gaming furloughed the majority of its staff earlier this week, one of many gaming operators forced to take this drastic step.

Nordic online gambling operator Kindred Group is trimming its workforce but insists it’s nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic eating into its business.

On Friday, the Times of Malta quoted a Kindred spokesperson saying the company planned to make around 75 employees redundant. The cuts will reportedly be distributed among the company’s 13 global offices in Europe, Australia and the United States.

The spokesperson said the company hadn’t publicly revealed the number of staff in each office that are facing the axe but did say the formal consultation process on the layoffs would start later this month.

The spokesperson said the decision to cut payroll was “very tough and painful” and such measures “will always be a last resort.” The spokesperson further acknowledged that this was already “a challenging time” and pledged that the company would do “all we can to support impacted individuals as much as possible through this period.”

China is threatening to “severely hit” online gambling operators during the COVID-19 pandemic, while offering “heavy” financial awards to individuals who fink on operators.

On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Public Security issued a six-point ‘Notice on Strictly Combating Cross-Border Gambling and Telecommunications Network Fraud During the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic.’

The notice claims that online operators based outside the country have “increased their gambling efforts against our citizens” during the pandemic, making the harm caused “more prominent” and requiring the Ministry to take extra measures to “safeguard our economic and social order.”

The new measures are basically similar to a notice the Ministry issued six weeks ago. The previous notice called for the creation of a “‘blacklist’ system for participating in gambling and employees and overseas tourist destination,” as well as strengthening methods of detecting and cutting off online gambling payment processing.

Australian online gambling activity has shot up by two-thirds since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, although it’s not perhaps the great cause for alarm that anti-gambling campaigners are making it out to be.

Data published weekly by economic analysts AlphaBeta and credit bureau Illion show online gambling transactions were up 67% in the week ending March 29 compared to a ‘normal’ week. That represented the highest growth among the 18 categories studied from the sample of 250k Aussies.

While essentials such as supermarkets and pharmacies also enjoyed growth, the biggest gainers next to gambling were alcohol & tobacco (+33%), online retail & subscription services (+61%), food delivery (+63%) and home improvement (+64%).

The week in question marked the first since the Australian government launched its economic stimulus package, and saw a 10-point rise in overall discretionary spending (which remains 16% below normal).