A few neon lights at the casinos are still flashing, “open 24 hours”, stands above a closed burger bar. A homeless person sets up in a restaurant entrance for the night. On a pedestrian bridge over the Strip, the legendary entertainment mile in Las Vegas, Cici Ballard - pink hair, tattooed forearms - stands with friends and points to the deserted sidewalks below them, the closed bars, the silhouettes of the hotel towers. "It's kind of scary," she says, pulling her cigarette deeply.

From 2007 to 2009, the Great Recession affected Las Vegas more than anywhere else in the United States. The Las Vegas’s economy will, once again, be dealt a difficult hand as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, according to Stephen M. Miller, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) and economics professor at UNLV's Lee Business School.

The $349 billion in federal funding for cash-strapped small businesses has dried up in less than two weeks.

The $ 349 billion in federal funds for small businesses with liquidity problems ran out in less than two weeks.

Nevada could have the largest number of unemployed workers in the US due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a state where an estimated one in three workers is employed by the leisure and hospitality industry, 320,000 Nevada workers are at risk, twice the number in the late 2000s, which could push Nevada’s unemployment rate above 30 percent, according to a recent report by Las Vegas-based economic research firm Applied Analysis, reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Casinos with fewer than 500 employees can participate in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program if their gaming revenue last year was less than $1 million and comprised less than half of business revenue, under new SBA guidance.

With the Strip effectively closed by the coronavirus pandemic, job losses have soared to record levels in Nevada.

Like much of the country, Nevada has all but shut down, with the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip replaced with the flashing lights of police cars stationed in front of casinos amid efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Like much of the country, Nevada has all but shut down, with the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip replaced with the flashing lights of police cars stationed in front of casinos amid efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Hector Padilla lost his Las Vegas house after the 2007-09 recession. It could be happening all over again.

The coronavirus has spread to every continent. The numbers of confirmed cases and death continue upward in many countries. Doctors and nurses around the world are trying to save patients, but it seems the number of patients who need treatment is greater than the medical care available in some countries like Italy and Spain, and previously in cities such as Wuhan, China and Daegu, South Korea.

At a time when the new coronavirus threatens not only public health and safety but also the livelihoods of small-business owners, Las Vegas entrepreneurs are adapting or upending their business models to continue serving their communities. In turn, they hope locals will continue to support them.