Most liquor stores in most cities and states are not "miniature casinos" and even casinos in most states are not like Nevada casinos. If you have to go to an extreme to prove your point, you had disproven it as a generalizable point.
I don't doubt for a moment that in Nevada, "money talks" with regard to casinos. If the argument is that "money talks" had an impact on what stayed open during the various shut-downs, I certainly won't dispute that.
My primary concern is the abuse of religious freedom that occurred in Nevada, California and some surrounding states. There was no justification for Governor Sisolak to close the churches while allowing liquor stores to operate; additionally, when the casinos were reopened, they were not subjected to the capacity restrictions illegally imposed on churches.
As far as “money talking” with regards to the casinos, the casinos certainly did not ask for any restrictions to be imposed on churches. Surprisingly, the majority of people who own or work for casinos in Nevada are Christians; the mafia who founded them were, of course, but the modern day owners and employees are member of a large number of different churches. I have close friends who work in that business who are members of non-denominational megachurches, the many Eastern Orthodox churches in Las Vegas, the Roman Catholic, Maronite Catholic, Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Italo Albanian Greek Catholic churches, the mainline Protestant churches, the Coptic, Armenian and other Oriental Orthodox churches, and a very close friend who is a Seventh Day Adventist. There is also a Mormon temple and several “wards” in Vegas and I would expect some of them work in the gaming industry as well. Don Laughlin, the exceedingly generous founder of the town of Laughlin, who owns the Riverside Resort, is a Roman Catholic and his devotion is such he paid for the construction of the local Catholic parish, and additionally arranges for masses to be served in the convention center portion of his resort. I attended one while on vacation and it was the best Novus Ordo mass I have been to, with proper Gregorian chant in English (specifically, the Missa de Angelis).
On that note, the decision of the Roman Catholic Church and some of the mainline churches to suspend service was a major contributor to the illicit suppression of worship in California and Nevada. The Russian Orthodox Church, several Continuing Anglican churches, and several other conservative denominations desired to continue operating with social distancing but was forcibly shut down. That a group of larger churches including the Episcopal Church forced the shutdown of smaller Continuing Anglican churches, one of which, St. George’s Anglican Church in Ventura, California, which is one of only two continuing Anglican churches in the region as a result nearly closed permanently due to financial hardship created by a long term lease and a lack of revenue due to the suppression of worship services, is a clear violation of the establishment clause.
But if you want a national example of a high risk double standard, I shall provide you one in the next response:
Regarding the actual risk of infection, the specific type of environment created by a normal church service meeting is almost purpose-designed for transmission of an airborne disease. That's not particularly true of most small merchandise environments, where there are generally few people and those people are in-and-out fairly quickly, without having "rebreathed" the exhalations of very many people.
Not only is your point such an extreme oversimplification as to be inaccurate, because many churches have windows that can be opened as well as numerous means of ventilation which can be combined to ensure air quality, but with social distancing, a church service can be safer than a theatre. And that’s not even getting into other religions adversely impacted by this persecution the illegal worship ban disrupted many other religions and religious services, leading to the morally unjustifiable suppression of Mosques, Gurdwaras, Hindu and Buddhist temples, Orthodox and Karaite Synagogues, Reform Judaism Temples, and Ethiopian Jewish Temples, and many other religious facilities of different religions which in many cases did not wish to be shut down, and the prohibition of their worship was every bit as much as an infringement of their constitutional rights as the suppression of our Christian worship.
Indeed the most horrific moment in all of this for me personally was an anti-semitic incident in which the non-Jewish mayor of a large city, flanked by armed police, took it on himself to desecrate and suppress the funeral of a beloved Chassidic Rebbe who had reposed of natural causes. I myself am not Jewish, but on that day I was profoundly moved. Since that time, that same city has faced credible accusations of imposing more severe Covid lockdowns in Chassidic areas, which to me suggests a pattern of unconstitutional, anti-Semitic behavior.
Now, moving on to a general nationwide case of partiality, the anti-police protests and especially the occupation of certain areas in major cities actually were very much a breeding ground for Covid. After the protests began, we saw a steady, continual increase in the number of cases. And when we look at the “occupy” protests such as CHOP/CHAZ in Seattle, these environments, according to the CDC’s own guidance, actually were almost literally, to use your words, tailor made to facilitate the spread of the virus. The CDC imposed an eviction moratorium precisely because they did not want people living in tents, in communal conditions, which is precisely what we saw in the occupied protests. A group of protestors sharing a tent, rebreathing each other’s exhalations throughout the night after a day spent interacting with a large number of people, many of which were doubtless infected with Covid but in the early, asymptomatic phase in which transmission is so much of a danger...well, anyone can see the danger in that.
And what I find morally outrageous about this is that all of that was allowed to occur, while churches remained shutdown. People can claim it was their first amendment right to protest, and to some extent, that is true, although in the case of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle and others like it, it seems probable that the first amendment rights were exceeded to a large degree, while, at precisely the same time, churches remained shut down. And churches have every bit as much entitlement to first amendment freedoms as organized protests.
Fortunately, this is now a non-issue, because the United States Supreme Court agreed with my position on the matter. I am interested in filing some lawsuits for monetary damages against the governments and certain key officials in California, Nevada and other states in the Southwest where worship services were unconstitutionally impeded. If successful, these could raise substantial funds for charity. I am a particular fan of The Voice of the Martyrs and also the charitable ministries associated with the Episcopal Church and Catholic Charities, based on their performance track record in recent years.