(WKBN) – Hollywood Gaming and Racino in Austintown has changed its hours to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to comply with Governor Mike DeWine’s 21-day curfew for the state.

Prior to that, Hollywood Gaming would close between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday to clean the facility. On Friday and Saturday, it was open 24 hours.

“Just like everything else this year, it’s an unknown,” said General Manager Allie Evangelista. “We are learning as we go, and we are doing the best we can for our guests and team members.”

When the business reopened in June, some employees didn’t return, either by choice or because of position elimination. Right now, the goal is to retain all of Hollywood Gaming’s employees during the next 21 days.

“We did have to spend some time adjusting people’s work hours and also some hours of operation, such as restaurant, last call for alcohol sales, and things like that so we can be actually ready to close the property at 10 p.m.,” Evangelista said.

So far, everyone has been understanding of what they are trying to do.

“They appreciate the goal of retaining everyone, especially during the holiday season. The last thing we want to do is call a team member and let them know that they don’t have a job to come back to, so this is the best-case scenario,” Evangelista said. ” We understand that we have to change the way we think and the way we do business to remain open and remain safe for not only the team members but our guests.”

To stay safe, workers are following protocols for cleaning. There is a reduced capacity to 50%, so only 600 people can be in the building at a time, including employees, and Plexiglass dividers are installed throughout the building.

“Some of our VLT machines are not up to play to enforce social distancing, and some of them, we have implemented Plexiglass in between players,” Evangelista said.

Hollywood Gaming has also introduced an opportunity for guests to give back to charity during what has proven to be a tough time for everyone.

“One of them is a box at the exit of our building where guests can drop a VLT voucher into this clear box, and it’s basically a donation to the local community,” Evangelista said. “We collect those vouchers, and we issue a check to the organization that we selected.”

The funds from that will go to Gleaner’s Food Bank in Youngstown.

Guests can also donate at the kiosks by entering their VLT voucher and donating up to 99 cents to the available organizations. Right now, the available organizations are Veterans Outreach, Angels for Animals and the Second Harvest Food Bank. Management plans to change them every quarter.

“This week, we actually are really excited because we launched a new app for our loyal guests,” Evangelista said.

Guests that have a My Choice account can download the app on their phone to see offers, see what’s happening on the property, as well as any changes. It also eliminates having to use a card when they go to the cashier. They can scan their phone instead to use comps in the restaurant or access their account.

Live racing starts up again at the racino on Nov. 23. after being shut down for awhile due to COVID-19 exposure.

“We’re very grateful for the support of our guests, our guests are very loyal,” Evangelista said. “We’ve been working with the local health department, our vendors, the Ohio Lottery Commission to make sure that everything that is required of us is in place, and we go the extra mile to make sure that our team members and guests are safe.”