Pechanga Arena San Diego is the premier venue for concerts, sports and live events. Formerly San Diego Sports Arena and Valley View Casino Center. View the event calendar, buy tickets, seating chart, box office, parking, directions and more.
LATEST UPDATES: Tracking COVID-19 | Racial Justice
Friday, October 16, 2020
Harrah's Resort Southern California is located at 777 Harrah's Rincon Way, 5.7 miles from the center of Valley Center. Valley View Casino is the closest landmark to Harrah's Resort Southern California. Valley View Casino & Hotel in the north part of San Diego County is located near Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Poway, Temecula - and America's finest city itself!
By Camille von Kaenel / inewsource, Jennifer Bowman / inewsource
Photo by Zoë Meyers / inewsource
Above: Two visitors wear face shields and masks while at a card table at the Sycuan Casino in East County, Aug. 14, 2020.
As many businesses remained under orders to stay closed during the coronavirus pandemic, tribes in San Diego County bucked recommendations from outside leaders and reopened their casinos with measures designed to limit the spread of illness.
It's unclear if the gamble paid off.
Aired 10/16/20 on KPBS News
Listen to this story by Camille Von Kaenel of iNewsource.
Public health officials have confirmed that more than 300 of the county's residents who contracted COVID-19 reported visiting a casino shortly before testing positive.
But the county won't disclose whether any community outbreaks occurred at local casinos because they're on tribal lands. The tribal governments have released little information and aren't subject to federal and state disclosure laws as sovereign entities.
That means local outbreaks potentially are being left out of a metric the county considers in reopening decisions. Already, San Diego fails to stay under the threshold for outbreaks set by public health officials.
The casinos began reopening in May with new cleaning, social distancing and face covering policies, but some of their employees have raised concerns.
In late August, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched an investigation into Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center following a complaint. The case remains open and no further public details are available.
The casino also is involved in a lawsuit brought by its former general manager, who says he was so concerned about health risks from reopening that he had no choice but to quit.
Over the past two months, inewsource visited seven of the county's nine tribal casinos. At each establishment, workers used handheld devices, thermal cameras or body scanners to check body temperatures of people entering the casinos.
Some casinos have disabled every other slot machine to enforce social distancing and have shut down some table games. Attendants at table games that remain open wear protective gear, and some casinos have installed plexiglass barriers.
Many, but not all, indoor restaurants and food courts have fully reopened. Guests are allowed to pull down their face coverings when drinking, eating or smoking.
Each business had varying levels of enforcement and open activities. Pala Casino Spa Resort in North County, for example, has reduced its transportation program but continues to bus in guests from throughout Southern California. Online it's selling tickets to concerts.
Employees at three of the county's casinos said the new protocols aren't always followed. inewsource agreed not to name them because they feared losing their jobs.
Bubble craps machine for sale. Mask policies are difficult to enforce with guests, they said, and crowds can form around table games and slot machines despite social distancing efforts. Some said their management isn't providing them any information about cases linked to their workplace.
One employee at the Sycuan Casino Resort in East County said she prays for her health before each shift.
'I cannot just let my job go because I'm scared,' she said. 'I'm scared, but I'm there. I need the money. If I don't have the job, I can't afford my house. Then I'll be living on the streets with my kids.'
With the exception of Sycuan, casino officials declined to comment for this story, did not respond or referred a reporter to safety policies posted online. In a May 8 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, county Supervisor Greg Cox and other officials, eight of the gaming tribes explained their decision to reopen, saying they believed they could ensure the well being of guests and employees and scale back if needed.
They also reminded the officials that the casinos are a 'lifeline' for funding essential tribal government operations including police, fire, healthcare, education, housing and environmental protections.
Juggling economic, safety concerns
In mid-August, when an inewsource reporter was invited to tour Sycuan with a casino official, once-furloughed employees rehired as 'safety agents' walked the floor reminding guests to cover their faces and provided a mask if they didn't have one.
Most complied. One maskless woman waved the offer away and kept walking, despite prodding.
It was the first day of a new self-imposed rule requiring robust masks following research suggesting bandanas, gaiters and coverings with valves were less effective at limiting the spread of coronavirus respiratory droplets. The Barona, Viejas and Valley View casinos have adopted similar policies.
Eddie Ilko, Sycuan's safety manager, said the mask policies have been a 'learning curve' for guests and employees. He said the casino has worked with tribal regulatory officials and leaders to adapt as the pandemic continues.
Ilko said he feels safe on the casino floor because of the measures.
'We're safer because a lot of the history Indian Country has had, so we've had to be above and beyond whatever the local and state regulations are,' he said.
Some of the casinos have posted online that they are hiring. In their letter to Newsom and other officials about reopening, the casinos said they support 'tens of thousands' of San Diegans economically.
Tribal casinos generated $4.4 billion in direct and indirect economic spending in Southern California in 2014, according to the latest available report from the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. They directly employed 24,100 people.
The casinos' financial losses from the roughly two months they were closed when Newsom ordered businesses to shut down aren't publicly known.
But in California, preliminary figures show employment by gambling industries dropped 41% in the state from March through August. Employment by Indian tribes, including at casinos they manage directly, dropped by 14% during the same period.
Since the casinos reopened, county public health officials say 112 employees and 196 patrons
with confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses visited a local casino within 14 days of their illness. The 308 cases are as of Oct. 5 and include three people who died.
Ninety-one of the cases have been reported since Sept. 1.
County public health officials stress that a person's presence at a casino during the potential exposure period does not mean that's where they got the virus. Officials also haven't made any definitive connections between a casino employee and a patron, county spokesperson Sarah Sweeney said.
Whether any of the cases amounted to a community outbreak is unknown.
Throughout the county, public health officials have identified 47 community outbreaks in the past week, with 17 of them reported on Wednesday. Since March 25, the county has recorded 406 outbreaks.
The state defines an outbreak at a workplace as three or more probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases that are linked but from different households. Outbreaks are one of 13 metrics local public health officials consider when setting reopening policies, along with case rates, hospitalizations, contact tracing and other factors.
County officials have generally refused to name any specific business or location when identifying community outbreaks, instead providing a running total and grouping them into categories such as restaurants, grocery stores and private residences. The Voice of San Diego, KPBS and The San Diego Union-Tribune have sued for the information.
In addition to excluding outbreaks on tribal lands, the county also excludes those on military land.
Faust casino spiel. Even without counting any community outbreaks at casinos, the county for months has exceeded the threshold local public health officials set. They have said they could take action if more than seven new outbreaks occur within a week, regardless of other state metrics.
Despite consistently failing to meet the outbreak metric, the county hasn't scaled back reopening even as the number of community outbreaks spike. Officials instead are relying on what the state weighs in its criteria: case rate and test positivity.
Casino employees get few COVID-19 details
Casinos have varied in their decisions to share COVID-19 case numbers with workers.
Sycuan employees told inewsource they regularly receive reports about personnel who have tested positive and how many have recovered and returned to work. But employees at Harrah's said they haven't received any official communications and have only learned about possible cases through word of mouth or if a supervisor told them they had come into contact with someone who tested positive.
A Harrah's worker said he spoke with his wife about how they would quarantine away from each other in case he contracted the virus after working a busy Labor Day weekend.
'It's not the kind of thing where I feel like I'm in immediate danger, but I definitely feel like my health has been compromised,' he said.
Tribes are generally protective of their data, including during the pandemic, said Vanesscia Cresci, research and public health director at the California Rural Indian Health Board.
She said she knows tribal members in other areas of the country who have received racist backlash from surrounding communities after their COVID-19 cases were publicized.
'We don't publicly report it either because we are also very respectful of tribal sovereignty, and if they choose to report it that's up to them,' Cresci said.
In response to the pandemic, the county has signed memorandums of understanding with three of the region's 17 tribal governments: Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, Pala Band of Mission Indians and Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.
The three tribes and the county agreed to share information about infectious diseases and outbreaks. The agreements also name a public health officer for each tribe, one of whom is a fire chief, another a risk management director and another a tribal chairman.
A county spokesperson said officials expect to finalize agreements with all of the tribes.
inewsource is an independent investigative journalism organization embedded in the KPBS newsroom. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 supported by foundations, philanthropists and its own separate membership base.
FEATURED PODCAST
San Diego news; when you want it, where you want it. Get local stories on politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings. Hosted by Anica Colbert and produced by KPBS, San Diego and the Imperial County's NPR and PBS station.
Want more KPBS news?
Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. + Subscribe to our podcasts
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.
More Like This
Ex-Harrah's Executive Sues After Resigning Over Valley Center Casino Reopening
- Sep. 4, 2020
Casino Pauma To Remain Closed, Bucking Local Tribal Casino Trend
- May. 20, 2020
Sycuan Casino To Reopen, Three More San Diego County Casinos Will Follow
- May. 20, 2020
Latest News
Pence, Wife Karen, Surgeon General Get COVID-19 Vaccines
San Diego County Restaurants Exempt From State's COVID-19 Restrictions, Judge Rules
County Reports 2,604 New Cases 22 Deaths As Hospitalizations Continue To Rise
LATEST UPDATES: Tracking COVID-19 | Racial Justice
Friday, September 4, 2020
By Camille von Kaenel / inewsource, Jennifer Bowman / inewsource
Photo by Zoë Meyers / inewsource
Above: Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center is shown on Sept. 3, 2020. A former executive is suing Harrah's over the casino's reopening.
A top executive at Harrah's Resort Southern California who quit the day before the casino reopened is suing his former employer, claiming he was forced to resign after management ignored his concerns that the decision was dangerous and could expose visitors to COVID-19.
Darrell Pilant, the Valley Center casino's former general manager and senior vice president, filed the lawsuit against Caesars Entertainment Inc. in San Diego Superior Court on Monday. He alleges the company's decision to reopen in May resulted in 'serious adverse health and safety consequences involving employees and customers contracting COVID-19.'
Aired 9/4/20 on KPBS News
Listen to this story by Camille von Kaenel of iNewsource.
San Diego County confirmed to inewsource this week that 217 local residents who have contracted COVID-19 reported being at a casino within two weeks of becoming ill. Twelve of the people were hospitalized and one, a casino patron, died.
The cases are tied to seven of the county's nine tribal casinos and involve 76 employees and 141 guests, county spokesperson Sarah Sweeney said. She noted that even though those who tested positive visited a casino during their potential exposure period, it doesn't mean they contracted the coronavirus there.
Valley View Casino Center San Diego
The county has refused to name specific businesses where outbreaks have occurred, including casinos.
The Rincon Band of the Luiseño Indians owns the Valley Center casino. It uses the resort's revenue to fund tribal government services for its more than 500 members and 5,000-acre reservation. The tribe contracts with Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment, the largest gaming company in the U.S.
Tribal casinos are on sovereign land, meaning they don't fall under the jurisdiction of state or local health officials. When they reopened after a roughly two-month closure, many other businesses in the county remained closed.
Like the other casinos, Harrah's reopening plan includes requirements for face coverings, social distancing and increased sanitation.
Bo Mazzetti, chairman of the Rincon Band, said in a recent newsletter that the tribe 'literally took the lead' to coordinate with other tribes and government officials for reopening.
'Rincon's position was that someone had to take charge and do something for Indian tribes and reservations throughout the state,' he wrote in the newsletter.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and local health officials opposed the decision to reopen. In a letter to tribal leaders, Newsom said he understands casinos are crucial to funding their government services. But, he wrote, 'I cannot stress enough that the risk of COVID-19 transmission remains a serious threat for all Californians.'
Valley View Center Casino San Diego
In his lawsuit, Pilant claims he was repeatedly assured that Newsom and the county were 'on board' with reopening. Despite Pilant's repeated concerns to management about health and safety risks, he said the company gave him an 'illegal and dangerous' directive to lead the reopening.
He called it 'a matter of ‘right and wrong' and what Caesars was doing was wrong.' His last day at work was May 21, a day before Harrah's reopened the casino's doors.
Pilant's suit argues he was 'constructively terminated' and under his contract is eligible for severance equal to a year's worth of his salary, a figure that was not included in court documents. He's also seeking unspecified damages.
He declined to comment when reached by inewsource. Pilant's attorney, Anthony Pantoni, did not respond to phone calls or emails.
A nearly 23-year employee of Caesars Entertainment, Pilant had held positions with the company in other states before coming to Harrah's Resort Southern California in 2011. He was promoted to general manager in 2016, overseeing all casino operations.
Pilant serves on several community boards, including the Palomar Health Foundation and the San Diego Food Bank.
The Rincon Band, which through a spokesperson declined to comment for this story, citing the litigation, is not named as a defendant. Mazzetti is quoted in an Aug. 26 news story in the Valley Roadrunner saying no COVID-19 cases have been identified at the resort or on the reservation.
A Caesars Entertainment spokesperson for the Rincon property did not respond to phone calls and emails from inewsource.
Casinos in the county did not respond to inquiries from inewsource seeking their case numbers. An official from the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Nation, which owns the Sycuan CasinoResort in East County, has previously confirmed the casino worked with the county to investigate cases involving those who tested positive for COVID-19.
The pandemic is a 'fluid situation' for casinos, Eddie Ilko, Sycuan's safety manager, told inewsource.
The casino has already made some changes to its safety measures since reopening, said Ilko, who also is chairman of the National Indian Casino Safety Association. Sycuan has banned smoking in certain parts of the resort, required face masks more robust than bandanas and gaiters and added employees to enforce policies.
'We had to learn on the fly,' Ilko said. 'This was something new for everybody.'
The casino has also added surveillance resources, he said, to track people's movements who are later found to have tested positive. This makes it easier to alert guests or workers who were within six feet of those infected with the virus.
Sweeney said the county works closely with tribal health authorities on individual cases and contact investigations but 'has not made any definitive connection between any casino employee and a patron.'
Still, county officials say visiting a casino puts a person at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 and have 'repeatedly commented that going to a casino is not essential,' Sweeney said in an email.
'Those who do go are encouraged to review the precautions that the casino is taking to prevent illness,' she said.
inewsource is an independent investigative journalism organization embedded in the KPBS newsroom. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 supported by foundations, philanthropists and its own separate membership base.
FEATURED PODCAST
San Diego news; when you want it, where you want it. Get local stories on politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings. Hosted by Anica Colbert and produced by KPBS, San Diego and the Imperial County's NPR and PBS station.
Want more KPBS news?
Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. + Subscribe to our podcasts
Valley Center Casino San Diego Ca
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.
More Like This
Tribal Casinos Keep COVID-19 Details Private While Juggling Economics, Safety
- Oct. 16, 2020
2 Tribal Casinos In Connecticut Roll The Dice And Reopen
- Jun. 1, 2020
Casino Pauma To Remain Closed, Bucking Local Tribal Casino Trend
- May. 20, 2020
Sycuan Casino To Reopen, Three More San Diego County Casinos Will Follow
- May. 20, 2020
Pechanga Casino
Latest News
LATEST UPDATES: Tracking COVID-19 | Racial Justice
Friday, October 16, 2020
Harrah's Resort Southern California is located at 777 Harrah's Rincon Way, 5.7 miles from the center of Valley Center. Valley View Casino is the closest landmark to Harrah's Resort Southern California. Valley View Casino & Hotel in the north part of San Diego County is located near Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Poway, Temecula - and America's finest city itself!
By Camille von Kaenel / inewsource, Jennifer Bowman / inewsource
Photo by Zoë Meyers / inewsource
Above: Two visitors wear face shields and masks while at a card table at the Sycuan Casino in East County, Aug. 14, 2020.
As many businesses remained under orders to stay closed during the coronavirus pandemic, tribes in San Diego County bucked recommendations from outside leaders and reopened their casinos with measures designed to limit the spread of illness.
It's unclear if the gamble paid off.
Aired 10/16/20 on KPBS News
Listen to this story by Camille Von Kaenel of iNewsource.
Public health officials have confirmed that more than 300 of the county's residents who contracted COVID-19 reported visiting a casino shortly before testing positive.
But the county won't disclose whether any community outbreaks occurred at local casinos because they're on tribal lands. The tribal governments have released little information and aren't subject to federal and state disclosure laws as sovereign entities.
That means local outbreaks potentially are being left out of a metric the county considers in reopening decisions. Already, San Diego fails to stay under the threshold for outbreaks set by public health officials.
The casinos began reopening in May with new cleaning, social distancing and face covering policies, but some of their employees have raised concerns.
In late August, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched an investigation into Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center following a complaint. The case remains open and no further public details are available.
The casino also is involved in a lawsuit brought by its former general manager, who says he was so concerned about health risks from reopening that he had no choice but to quit.
Over the past two months, inewsource visited seven of the county's nine tribal casinos. At each establishment, workers used handheld devices, thermal cameras or body scanners to check body temperatures of people entering the casinos.
Some casinos have disabled every other slot machine to enforce social distancing and have shut down some table games. Attendants at table games that remain open wear protective gear, and some casinos have installed plexiglass barriers.
Many, but not all, indoor restaurants and food courts have fully reopened. Guests are allowed to pull down their face coverings when drinking, eating or smoking.
Each business had varying levels of enforcement and open activities. Pala Casino Spa Resort in North County, for example, has reduced its transportation program but continues to bus in guests from throughout Southern California. Online it's selling tickets to concerts.
Employees at three of the county's casinos said the new protocols aren't always followed. inewsource agreed not to name them because they feared losing their jobs.
Bubble craps machine for sale. Mask policies are difficult to enforce with guests, they said, and crowds can form around table games and slot machines despite social distancing efforts. Some said their management isn't providing them any information about cases linked to their workplace.
One employee at the Sycuan Casino Resort in East County said she prays for her health before each shift.
'I cannot just let my job go because I'm scared,' she said. 'I'm scared, but I'm there. I need the money. If I don't have the job, I can't afford my house. Then I'll be living on the streets with my kids.'
With the exception of Sycuan, casino officials declined to comment for this story, did not respond or referred a reporter to safety policies posted online. In a May 8 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, county Supervisor Greg Cox and other officials, eight of the gaming tribes explained their decision to reopen, saying they believed they could ensure the well being of guests and employees and scale back if needed.
They also reminded the officials that the casinos are a 'lifeline' for funding essential tribal government operations including police, fire, healthcare, education, housing and environmental protections.
Juggling economic, safety concerns
In mid-August, when an inewsource reporter was invited to tour Sycuan with a casino official, once-furloughed employees rehired as 'safety agents' walked the floor reminding guests to cover their faces and provided a mask if they didn't have one.
Most complied. One maskless woman waved the offer away and kept walking, despite prodding.
It was the first day of a new self-imposed rule requiring robust masks following research suggesting bandanas, gaiters and coverings with valves were less effective at limiting the spread of coronavirus respiratory droplets. The Barona, Viejas and Valley View casinos have adopted similar policies.
Eddie Ilko, Sycuan's safety manager, said the mask policies have been a 'learning curve' for guests and employees. He said the casino has worked with tribal regulatory officials and leaders to adapt as the pandemic continues.
Ilko said he feels safe on the casino floor because of the measures.
'We're safer because a lot of the history Indian Country has had, so we've had to be above and beyond whatever the local and state regulations are,' he said.
Some of the casinos have posted online that they are hiring. In their letter to Newsom and other officials about reopening, the casinos said they support 'tens of thousands' of San Diegans economically.
Tribal casinos generated $4.4 billion in direct and indirect economic spending in Southern California in 2014, according to the latest available report from the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. They directly employed 24,100 people.
The casinos' financial losses from the roughly two months they were closed when Newsom ordered businesses to shut down aren't publicly known.
But in California, preliminary figures show employment by gambling industries dropped 41% in the state from March through August. Employment by Indian tribes, including at casinos they manage directly, dropped by 14% during the same period.
Since the casinos reopened, county public health officials say 112 employees and 196 patrons
with confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses visited a local casino within 14 days of their illness. The 308 cases are as of Oct. 5 and include three people who died.
Ninety-one of the cases have been reported since Sept. 1.
County public health officials stress that a person's presence at a casino during the potential exposure period does not mean that's where they got the virus. Officials also haven't made any definitive connections between a casino employee and a patron, county spokesperson Sarah Sweeney said.
Whether any of the cases amounted to a community outbreak is unknown.
Throughout the county, public health officials have identified 47 community outbreaks in the past week, with 17 of them reported on Wednesday. Since March 25, the county has recorded 406 outbreaks.
The state defines an outbreak at a workplace as three or more probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases that are linked but from different households. Outbreaks are one of 13 metrics local public health officials consider when setting reopening policies, along with case rates, hospitalizations, contact tracing and other factors.
County officials have generally refused to name any specific business or location when identifying community outbreaks, instead providing a running total and grouping them into categories such as restaurants, grocery stores and private residences. The Voice of San Diego, KPBS and The San Diego Union-Tribune have sued for the information.
In addition to excluding outbreaks on tribal lands, the county also excludes those on military land.
Faust casino spiel. Even without counting any community outbreaks at casinos, the county for months has exceeded the threshold local public health officials set. They have said they could take action if more than seven new outbreaks occur within a week, regardless of other state metrics.
Despite consistently failing to meet the outbreak metric, the county hasn't scaled back reopening even as the number of community outbreaks spike. Officials instead are relying on what the state weighs in its criteria: case rate and test positivity.
Casino employees get few COVID-19 details
Casinos have varied in their decisions to share COVID-19 case numbers with workers.
Sycuan employees told inewsource they regularly receive reports about personnel who have tested positive and how many have recovered and returned to work. But employees at Harrah's said they haven't received any official communications and have only learned about possible cases through word of mouth or if a supervisor told them they had come into contact with someone who tested positive.
A Harrah's worker said he spoke with his wife about how they would quarantine away from each other in case he contracted the virus after working a busy Labor Day weekend.
'It's not the kind of thing where I feel like I'm in immediate danger, but I definitely feel like my health has been compromised,' he said.
Tribes are generally protective of their data, including during the pandemic, said Vanesscia Cresci, research and public health director at the California Rural Indian Health Board.
She said she knows tribal members in other areas of the country who have received racist backlash from surrounding communities after their COVID-19 cases were publicized.
'We don't publicly report it either because we are also very respectful of tribal sovereignty, and if they choose to report it that's up to them,' Cresci said.
In response to the pandemic, the county has signed memorandums of understanding with three of the region's 17 tribal governments: Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, Pala Band of Mission Indians and Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.
The three tribes and the county agreed to share information about infectious diseases and outbreaks. The agreements also name a public health officer for each tribe, one of whom is a fire chief, another a risk management director and another a tribal chairman.
A county spokesperson said officials expect to finalize agreements with all of the tribes.
inewsource is an independent investigative journalism organization embedded in the KPBS newsroom. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 supported by foundations, philanthropists and its own separate membership base.
FEATURED PODCAST
San Diego news; when you want it, where you want it. Get local stories on politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings. Hosted by Anica Colbert and produced by KPBS, San Diego and the Imperial County's NPR and PBS station.
Want more KPBS news?
Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. + Subscribe to our podcasts
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.
More Like This
Ex-Harrah's Executive Sues After Resigning Over Valley Center Casino Reopening
- Sep. 4, 2020
Casino Pauma To Remain Closed, Bucking Local Tribal Casino Trend
- May. 20, 2020
Sycuan Casino To Reopen, Three More San Diego County Casinos Will Follow
- May. 20, 2020
Latest News
Pence, Wife Karen, Surgeon General Get COVID-19 Vaccines
San Diego County Restaurants Exempt From State's COVID-19 Restrictions, Judge Rules
County Reports 2,604 New Cases 22 Deaths As Hospitalizations Continue To Rise
LATEST UPDATES: Tracking COVID-19 | Racial Justice
Friday, September 4, 2020
By Camille von Kaenel / inewsource, Jennifer Bowman / inewsource
Photo by Zoë Meyers / inewsource
Above: Harrah's Resort Southern California in Valley Center is shown on Sept. 3, 2020. A former executive is suing Harrah's over the casino's reopening.
A top executive at Harrah's Resort Southern California who quit the day before the casino reopened is suing his former employer, claiming he was forced to resign after management ignored his concerns that the decision was dangerous and could expose visitors to COVID-19.
Darrell Pilant, the Valley Center casino's former general manager and senior vice president, filed the lawsuit against Caesars Entertainment Inc. in San Diego Superior Court on Monday. He alleges the company's decision to reopen in May resulted in 'serious adverse health and safety consequences involving employees and customers contracting COVID-19.'
Aired 9/4/20 on KPBS News
Listen to this story by Camille von Kaenel of iNewsource.
San Diego County confirmed to inewsource this week that 217 local residents who have contracted COVID-19 reported being at a casino within two weeks of becoming ill. Twelve of the people were hospitalized and one, a casino patron, died.
The cases are tied to seven of the county's nine tribal casinos and involve 76 employees and 141 guests, county spokesperson Sarah Sweeney said. She noted that even though those who tested positive visited a casino during their potential exposure period, it doesn't mean they contracted the coronavirus there.
Valley View Casino Center San Diego
The county has refused to name specific businesses where outbreaks have occurred, including casinos.
The Rincon Band of the Luiseño Indians owns the Valley Center casino. It uses the resort's revenue to fund tribal government services for its more than 500 members and 5,000-acre reservation. The tribe contracts with Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment, the largest gaming company in the U.S.
Tribal casinos are on sovereign land, meaning they don't fall under the jurisdiction of state or local health officials. When they reopened after a roughly two-month closure, many other businesses in the county remained closed.
Like the other casinos, Harrah's reopening plan includes requirements for face coverings, social distancing and increased sanitation.
Bo Mazzetti, chairman of the Rincon Band, said in a recent newsletter that the tribe 'literally took the lead' to coordinate with other tribes and government officials for reopening.
'Rincon's position was that someone had to take charge and do something for Indian tribes and reservations throughout the state,' he wrote in the newsletter.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and local health officials opposed the decision to reopen. In a letter to tribal leaders, Newsom said he understands casinos are crucial to funding their government services. But, he wrote, 'I cannot stress enough that the risk of COVID-19 transmission remains a serious threat for all Californians.'
Valley View Center Casino San Diego
In his lawsuit, Pilant claims he was repeatedly assured that Newsom and the county were 'on board' with reopening. Despite Pilant's repeated concerns to management about health and safety risks, he said the company gave him an 'illegal and dangerous' directive to lead the reopening.
He called it 'a matter of ‘right and wrong' and what Caesars was doing was wrong.' His last day at work was May 21, a day before Harrah's reopened the casino's doors.
Pilant's suit argues he was 'constructively terminated' and under his contract is eligible for severance equal to a year's worth of his salary, a figure that was not included in court documents. He's also seeking unspecified damages.
He declined to comment when reached by inewsource. Pilant's attorney, Anthony Pantoni, did not respond to phone calls or emails.
A nearly 23-year employee of Caesars Entertainment, Pilant had held positions with the company in other states before coming to Harrah's Resort Southern California in 2011. He was promoted to general manager in 2016, overseeing all casino operations.
Pilant serves on several community boards, including the Palomar Health Foundation and the San Diego Food Bank.
The Rincon Band, which through a spokesperson declined to comment for this story, citing the litigation, is not named as a defendant. Mazzetti is quoted in an Aug. 26 news story in the Valley Roadrunner saying no COVID-19 cases have been identified at the resort or on the reservation.
A Caesars Entertainment spokesperson for the Rincon property did not respond to phone calls and emails from inewsource.
Casinos in the county did not respond to inquiries from inewsource seeking their case numbers. An official from the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Nation, which owns the Sycuan CasinoResort in East County, has previously confirmed the casino worked with the county to investigate cases involving those who tested positive for COVID-19.
The pandemic is a 'fluid situation' for casinos, Eddie Ilko, Sycuan's safety manager, told inewsource.
The casino has already made some changes to its safety measures since reopening, said Ilko, who also is chairman of the National Indian Casino Safety Association. Sycuan has banned smoking in certain parts of the resort, required face masks more robust than bandanas and gaiters and added employees to enforce policies.
'We had to learn on the fly,' Ilko said. 'This was something new for everybody.'
The casino has also added surveillance resources, he said, to track people's movements who are later found to have tested positive. This makes it easier to alert guests or workers who were within six feet of those infected with the virus.
Sweeney said the county works closely with tribal health authorities on individual cases and contact investigations but 'has not made any definitive connection between any casino employee and a patron.'
Still, county officials say visiting a casino puts a person at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 and have 'repeatedly commented that going to a casino is not essential,' Sweeney said in an email.
'Those who do go are encouraged to review the precautions that the casino is taking to prevent illness,' she said.
inewsource is an independent investigative journalism organization embedded in the KPBS newsroom. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 supported by foundations, philanthropists and its own separate membership base.
FEATURED PODCAST
San Diego news; when you want it, where you want it. Get local stories on politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings. Hosted by Anica Colbert and produced by KPBS, San Diego and the Imperial County's NPR and PBS station.
Want more KPBS news?
Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. + Subscribe to our podcasts
Valley Center Casino San Diego Ca
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.
More Like This
Tribal Casinos Keep COVID-19 Details Private While Juggling Economics, Safety
- Oct. 16, 2020
2 Tribal Casinos In Connecticut Roll The Dice And Reopen
- Jun. 1, 2020
Casino Pauma To Remain Closed, Bucking Local Tribal Casino Trend
- May. 20, 2020
Sycuan Casino To Reopen, Three More San Diego County Casinos Will Follow
- May. 20, 2020
Pechanga Casino
Latest News
Pence, Wife Karen, Surgeon General Get COVID-19 Vaccines
San Diego County Restaurants Exempt From State's COVID-19 Restrictions, Judge Rules
County Reports 2,604 New Cases 22 Deaths As Hospitalizations Continue To Rise
