Casino customers get stomach flu

Wednesday, March 3, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

The California hotel in downtown Las Vegas has reported about 100 cases of customers with the stomach flu over the last 45 days.

A spokesman for California owner Boyd Gaming Corp. said the company doesn't know for sure how or where the cases originated but said most of the customers flew in on charter flights from Hawaii.

The Clark County Health District is working with the property to make sure the cases are contained and extra precautions are taken, he said.

"Whenever one person is sick we go to a heightened state of cleanliness," spokesman Rob Stillwell said. "This seems to have carried on, so we're taking this to an extreme level."

Property employees have been wiping down slot machines, door handles, elevator buttons and a variety of other surfaces, he said. Employees also are washing their hands regularly, he said.

"We haven't gotten to the bottom of it but we're taking every precaution to make sure it doesn't continue. We're down to a handful (of cases) over the last few days."

"When you're in a flu season sometimes these things happen. It can't be isolated to the airplane," he said.

The California probably serves more than 4,000 people each day in its restaurants, he said.