The Netherlands’ government has announced that public buildings must shut their doors in response to a rise in coronavirus cases.
Netherland’s government announced yesterday that public buildings will be forced to close their doors for two weeks in response to an increase in coronavirus cases.
The closure of public buildings will come into effect alongside the existing measures which include the closure of the all food and drink establishments.
Casino closures in Holland
Under the new measures, all publicly accessible buildings across the country will be forced to close with the exceptions of essential shops and some professions.
This means that all of the country’s casinos, cinemas, theatres, libraries, concert halls, amusement parks, saunas, swimming pools and zoos will have to remain closed until 18 November.
State-owned casino operator, Holland Casino, closed allied 14 of its branches last night in response to the announcement. This comes after the venues reopened in July after first closing in March during the early days of the pandemic.
The initial closure of the country’s casinos was set to last until September but after criticism from Holland Casino and the industry body VAN Kansspelen, the reopening date for casinos was brought forward to 1 July.
In August, Dutch municipal health services were given the power to close leisure facilities, including casinos, if they traced a coronavirus outbreak to a specific venue. A month later in September, a new curfew was announced which ordered casinos and slot venues in five regions to be fully closed by 1am each day.
This curfew was extended to several additional regions later in September.
Casino closures in other parts of the world
Several other land-based gambling venues in other countries, including France, Germany, Italy and even England, have been forced to close their doors as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise.
On 30 October, France announced a new lockdown which will remain in place until 1 December. Germany followed suit and entered a lockdown on 2 November for at least a month, with a review set for two weeks.
Italy also entered a second lockdown on 2 November until 12 November after passing an emergency decree.
The UK government also announced a second national lockdown would be imposed on England on 31 October, which will run from 5 November until at least 2 December.
