ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — Another milestone on the road to recovery in New Jersey — casino gaming is coming back. Atlantic City gambling halls will be allowed to reopen on Thursday.

Some are preparing to do it without indoor dining, alcohol and smoking.

“We are so excited, we can’t wait. We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Ocean Resort Casino CEO Terry Glebocki said.

The wait is almost over for Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City. On Thursday, all casinos in New Jersey will be allowed to reopen after a more than three-month shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There’s no shortage of safety procedures greeting employees and guests.

“We thermal check every employee as they enter. Our guests will go through a different health screening,” Glebocki said. “There’s a series of questions and different symptoms. We ask whether or not they’ve experienced any of those symptoms.”

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Social distancing signs are plastered everywhere with only four people allowed on an elevator at a time and hundreds of cleaning staff have also been added.

“We’ve disabled slot machines to allow for social distancing,” Glebocki said. “There will be fewer players at each table. We have over 200 hand sanitizing stations and wipes stations.”

Plexiglass shields will separate guests from employees at the front desk.

Just ahead of the July 4th weekend openings, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy rolled back plans to allow indoor dining, so casinos like the Borgata have chosen to remain closed for now.

Outdoor dining is still allowed.

“We have over three acres of outdoor space,” Glebocki said.

State and health officials have provided strict detailed guidelines for casinos, including limited capacity and contact tracing measures if a positive coronavirus case is discovered.

“If it were to be determined that someone was exposed to someone who had COVID, we have an in-house team that will handle the contact tracing,” Glebocki said. “We know how to do it in Jersey. We’re all wearing face masks wherever we go, our employees will be wearing the masks, our guests will be wearing the masks, I don’t foresee a problem.”