The COVID pandemic forced most U.S. casinos to close for months, causing payrolls, revenue and earnings to tumble.

But the forced shutdowns and highly regulated recoveries also taught the industry useful lessons that will endure even after the pandemic is a distant memory, panelists at a major casino conference said Thursday.

Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Congress, executives from major gambling companies said the changes they were forced to make because of the pandemic had some benefits.

B次元官网网址淲e learned lessons that canB次元官网网址檛 be unlearned,B次元官网网址� said Thomas Reeg, CEO of Caesars Entertainment.

B次元官网网址淚t forced us and gave us the ability to say to our guests that things that used to be viewed as an entitlement, maybe they donB次元官网网址檛 need them as much as they thought they did,B次元官网网址� added Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International. B次元官网网址淒o you need a buffet? Should you have a buffet?B次元官网网址�

The conference was held in the Hard Rock casino in Atlantic City, whose buffet is still operating. Some of Hard RockB次元官网网址檚 casinos in other states, including Florida, offer buffets while others do not.

David Cordish, chairman of the Cordish Companies, which operates casinos in Pennsylvania, Florida and Maryland, said the pandemic offered his business an opportunity B次元官网网址渢o tighten the ship.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淲e have not gone back to buffets,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚t certainly wasnB次元官网网址檛 fun. Being closed for months was horrendous for employees. But there were a lot of lessons learned.

B次元官网网址淲hat we did B次元官网网址� and we may need to do it again B次元官网网址� is when we were shut, we put in every possible type of health and safety screening you could do,B次元官网网址� including hand sanitizers and barriers between player positions at table games, measures that were commonly adopted at casinos across the country.

Cordish said those expenses paid off handsomely once the casinos were allowed to reopen in mid 2020.

B次元官网网址淧eople were fed up with being cooped up and came pouring back to the casinos, particularly when we did these things,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淪ince we reopened, business has been terrific.B次元官网网址�

Eric Hausler, CEO of Greenwood Racing, which owns PennsylvaniaB次元官网网址檚 Parx casino, said the pandemic opened his eyes to one particular liability.

B次元官网网址淲e had a restaurant that was open every day for lunch and never made any money,B次元官网网址� he said. When the casino reopened after its pandemic-related closure, B次元官网网址淲e didnB次元官网网址檛 bring it back, and no one ever said a thing about it.B次元官网网址�

Jeff Gural, who owns two racetrack casinos in upstate New York, had a similar experience.

B次元官网网址淲e had a Subway sandwich place that didnB次元官网网址檛 work,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭hen we converted it to a pizza place and that didnB次元官网网址檛 work. Someone suggested converting it to a sushi place B次元官网网址� and I donB次元官网网址檛 like sushi. And it succeeded.B次元官网网址�

Gural also said closure helped him realize that spending big money on broadcast ads, billboards and car giveaways wasnB次元官网网址檛 bringing in the return he expected, making it easier to scale back spending on such things.

Daily housekeeping of casino hotel rooms has become another casualty of the pandemic in some places. In June, Atlantic CityB次元官网网址檚 main casino workersB次元官网网址� with the state that four casinos were failing to clean guest hotel rooms daily as required by law, and one admitted it did not have enough housekeepers to clean every room every day.

Hospitality industry leaders say the combination of a shortage of housekeeping workers and the reluctance of some guests to allow hotel workers into their rooms during their stay has led to the abandonment of a daily room cleaning standard in resorts across the country.

One lingering effect of the pandemic is smaller payrolls. This is due both to workers who were let go during or shortly after the closures and have not been rehired, and a continuing difficulty in attracting new workers across the gambling industry, as with many others.

Jayson Guyot, president and CEO of ConnecticutB次元官网网址檚 Foxwoods Resort Casino, said he ordered a complete restructuring of the business from top to bottom during the closureB次元官网网址� something that would have been difficult to do had it still been operating.

B次元官网网址淚t enabled us to rebuild our margins from 10 to 13% to 18 to 20% now,B次元官网网址� he said.

But he also voiced a common concern: Foxwoods has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic business levels.

That is a major preoccupation for Atlantic CityB次元官网网址檚 casinos, which collectively have yet to return to 2019 revenue and profit levels for in-person gambling.

Second-quarter earnings, , show that five of Atlantic CityB次元官网网址檚 nine casinos failed to exceed their pre-pandemic profit levels, and the resort as a whole saw a decrease in profits of nearly 1%.

Atlantic City has thousands less casino workers than it did before the pandemic struck. It, like virtually every other casino market, has struggled to attract new workers and retain existing ones.

Hard Rock recently made headlines by spending $100 million to give big raises to 10,000 non-tipped workers, most of them in the U.S. Other companies have given smaller raises recently. Foxwoods has raised its hourly minimum wage from $10.50 two years ago to $14.50 now, Guyot said.

B次元官网网址擶ayne Parry, The Associated Press