The world is facing a major pandemic and is in the midst of panic. With industries closing down, the financial crisis seems to have hit Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta pretty harshly.

Houston Rockets owner thinks ahead

The 44th wealthiest man in the world, Tilman Fertitta has ownership across industries. He owns the Golden Nugget Casino Chain and Landry’s portfolio of restaurants. He also owns the very famous NBA team, Houston Rockets. His estimated net worth according to Forbes now stands at $4.8 billion.

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In a recent virtual interview with FOX News’ guest host Brian Kilmeade, Fertitta revealed that his decision to lay off his 45,000 employees was for their own good. He felt as if he was doing his employees a ‘favor” so they can access unemployment benefits earlier.

Moreover, Fertitta said that his decision was based on all the crisis situations he has faced previously.

“You know, Brian, I went through the ’87 crisis, the 2000, the 2008,” he said Saturday on FOX News’ show Ingraham Angle. “You’re doing the people a favor if you get them furloughed first because you have them first to the unemployment line after the severance that you give them.  It’s a trick that I’ve learned many years ago.”

Further, he revealed that the coronavirus completely shutdown his hospitality empire. He also said that the country must restart operations in early May for the good of the economy and the nation’s mental health.

Kilmeade asked Fertitta about the amount of cash his empire needed to sustain. The businessman had a straight-forward breakdown of expenditures for the viewers:

“We all pay today, yesterday’s bills with today’s money,” Fertitta said.  “And when we just got shut down in a 48-hour period, you still have a payroll and severance, $100 million for me because my payroll is $1.5 billion a year.”

How Fertitta’s decision could prove to be right

Fertitta was adamant that his decision would help his employees get unemployment benefits faster. His reasoning must be correct, as many companies are laying their employees at this time. Hence, there will be a rush to file for unemployment.

According to a business website, a shocking 16.8 million people filed for U.S. unemployment benefits in the last three weeks itself. Unfortunately, that has resulted in overwhelming state labor departments. Further, it created a large backlog of pending applications already.

For Tilman Fertitta and his employees’ sake, we hope the Rockets’ owner’s decision ends up being right.