Employees at MGM Resorts properties and Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino are subject to a Covid-19 vaccine mandate, effective Friday, Oct. 15.
The order requires most salaried employees to show proof of vaccination or risk losing their jobs.
MGM requires all salaried employees who don’t work exclusively from home to have been mandated by the Oct. 15 deadline. All hourly and salaried new hires have to show proof of vaccination before they begin work at any MGM property.
MGM, which employs approximately 57,000 workers, was the first major U.S. casino company to enact such a policy.
“Our goal is to get as many people vaccinated as possible,” MGM spokesperson Brian Ahern told the Nevada Independent at the time of the mandate announcement. “We’re continuing to explore a variety of ways to do that, including expanding vaccination requirements among our workforce. This is an incredibly complex situation and we’re examining how expanded policies would potentially work and be implemented.”
For off-Strip Westgate, the vaccine mandate is in line with CEO David Siegel’s aggressive philosophy of coronavirus prevention. Westgate was one of the first Las Vegas casinos to again require workers to wear masks earlier this summer.
Siegel battled Covid back in July.
“Westgate is not the first major company to make this decision, and we will not be the last,” Siegel said, according to Las Vegas 8 News Now. “Vaccines are the single greatest tool we have for ending this pandemic, keeping ourselves and our families safe and returning life back to normal.”
