More than 300 employees at Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel in Boonville will be on a furlough starting Saturday.

The announcement was posted Tuesday to the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce development and follows a trend of furloughs and mass layoffs throughout the state and the country due to the novel coronavirus.

The action from Isle of Capril affects 350 employees in Boonville. The Kanas City, Kansas, Isle of Carpri also is implementing a staff reduction of 209 through a furlough.

“This emergency and these sudden and unexpected circumstances caused the temporary facility closure and adversely affected our business operations,” the casino’s Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter stated.

As of March 28, the Missouri Department of Labor has received 104,230 claims. Cooper County’s unemployment rate as of February was at 4%.

Eldorado Resorts, the owner of Isle of Capri, had received regulatory approval from the Missouri Gaming Commission to merge with Caesers Entertainment Corp. If the merger still is finalized this year it will operate two Eldorado-owned casinos in Missouri, the Isle of Capri-Boonville and Lumiere Place in St. Louis, and take over operation of the Caesars-owned Harrah’s North Kansas City Hotel and Casino.

The commission April 3 extended the closure of casinos in the state through April 24. The casino hopes to reopen for business April 25.

Other Missouri casinos and gaming businesses to conduct layoffs and furloughs are Lumiere Place St Louis with 646 affected employees, St. Joseph Frontier Casino with 132, Mark Twain Casino LaGrange with 135 and Garming Partners Blue Springs casino supplier with 718. The means Missouri has lost more than 2,000 gaming-related jobs due to the shrinking economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.