Las Vegas Mayor Gets Trolled For Her Controversial Remarks in TV Interview Opposing Casino Closure

At a time when the U.S. is officially the worst-affected country in the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Carolyn Goodman, the Mayor of Las Vegas, thinks that Vegas should go back to work and casinos should be reopened!

The 81-year-old Mayor recently went on air opposing Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak’s decision to keep Nevada closed for 30 days. In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Goodman not only called for an immediate reopening of casinos in Las Vegas, but she also stirred up quite the public uproar after making some very irresponsible and controversial statements on air.

In the interview, Goodman was on point when she said that the world’s biggest gambling hub is suffering significant losses because of the lockdown. What landed her in a spot was how she talked down the threat from the COVID-19 contagion. “I’d love everything open because I think we’ve had viruses for years that have been here… We’ve had Ebola. We’ve had the West Nile. We’ve had polio… This is part of life. It’s the challenges,” she said.

When reminded by Cooper that opening casinos would lead to crowding and likely result in a rapid spread of COVID-19, Goodman called Cooper “an alarmist,” pointing out that Vegas is not China.

The Mayor kept digging herself a bigger hole by continuously contradicting her own statements. On the one hand, she agreed that social distancing needed to be abided by, while on the other, she couldn’t offer any plan or suggestion on how casinos could implement it. “That’s up to them to figure out. I don’t run a casino,” was all that she could come with.

If that was not bad enough, the Mayor shockingly shared that she had offered the city’s population to be part of a control group to see if the city’s death toll was, in fact, low because of the social distancing protocols. “How do you know until we have a control group? We offered to be a control group. Anyone who knows anything about statistics knows that… I did offer. It was turned down. I offered to be a control group, and I was told by our statistician that you can’t do that,” she revealed much to the shock of everyone who had tuned in to watch the live interview.

Poker Community Reacts

Various politicians, Vegas residents, and prominent players from the poker community have slammed Goodman for her statements. In his tweets, six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu said that Goodman was embarrassing herself on national television and may have just ended her career.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman is embarrassing herself on national TV.

Remarkable.

Beyond remarkable.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing and hearing from her.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) April 22, 2020

Anderson Cooper may have just ended her career.

I couldn’t imagine a public official coming off worse in an interview.

There should be a mercy rule.

Stop the fight! https://t.co/rHCQ9cASD8 pic.twitter.com/6Z2a3MCiz9

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) April 22, 2020

Another poker pro Danielle Andersen also took to Twitter to express criticism.

I showed this clip to my 12-year-old who responded “that is literally the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” and I’m especially proud he clearly understands the term ‘literally.’ https://t.co/ilX2fbv4j3

— Danielle Andersen (@dmoongirl) April 22, 2020

Nevada Governor Sisolak Responds

A day after Goodman’s interview on CNN, Governor Steve Sisolak held a press conference and asserted that casinos and other businesses would remain closed in Nevada until further notice. He refused to open Nevada in May and further clarified that any reopening would be implemented in a phased manner.

Sisolak even went on the Cooper show to clarify his stance, “We are clearly not ready to open,” pointing out that Goodman’s interview had led to an increase in COVID cases. “Sadly, since you did that interview, we now have 187 deaths in the state of Nevada, but over 4,100 positive cases…I will not allow the citizens of Nevada, our Nevadans to be used as a control group, placebo, whatever she wants to call that… I will not allow that to happen.”

Cooper later tweeted about the interview.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak: "I'm not going to allow our workers to be put in position that they have to decide between their job and their paycheck and their life. That's not a fair position to put them in. I will not allow that to happen." https://t.co/Shh2hpDNfF pic.twitter.com/4idNyQGzPx

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) April 23, 2020

As on date, there are 4,398 COVID-positive cases in Nevada, with the death toll standing at 197. At a time when the other U.S. mayors are working to improve COVID testing facilities in their jurisdictions, Goodman’s pitch for reopening casinos without any concrete plan to control the pandemic is both shocking and disturbing!