Ask the Slot Expert: More non-smoking areas on Las Vegas casino floors

Current estimates of the percentage of U.S. adults that smoke range from 12.5% to 16%. Despite the widespread belief that gambling and smoking go hand in hand, estimates of the percentage of gamblers that smoke range from the same as the population as a whole to a few percentage points higher, about 22%. [Interesting to note that one of the people who told me that gambling=smoking was a non-smoking advantage player.]

You wouldn't know that most gamblers are non-smokers by looking at the casino floor in a typical Las Vegas casino. The norm is to allow smoking everywhere except in designated non-smoking areas.

Casinos in Las Vegas have been operating with smoker comforts in mind, whereas the majority of their patrons are nonsmokers.

Las Vegas casinos have become the safe-house of indoor smoking despite both domestic and international legislation promoting clean indoor air.

Although smoking is one of the habits that accompany gaming, people do not go to the casino for the sole reason of smoking a cigarette.

(Evaluating the Impact of a Smoking Ban in Las Vegas Casino ResortsResorts, Emil K. Sakevich, UNLV, 2016)

Las Vegas is falling behind the rest of the country in providing cleaner air on the casino floor. There are at least 1,000 casinos and other gaming properties in the U.S. with 100% smokefree indoor air policies.

New Jersey recently held a hearing about completely banning smoking on its casino floors.

This is all part of a larger reckoning on smoking in northeast casinos. There are similar pushes for bans in neighboring Pennsylvania, as well as Rhode Island and Virginia. Four casinos are voluntarily smoke-free in Pennsylvania, including the new Parx in Shippensburg. Every casino in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and New York doesn’t allow smoking.

New Jersey barred smoking inside bars, restaurants, and other public places with the Clean Air Act in 2006, but the law included a provision that allowing casinos to permit smoking on 25% of their floors. Vitale said that was the only way for the law to pass at the time, although he quickly introduced this bill (S264) to end that exemption.

Banning smoking in Atlantic City casinos finally gets public hearing Monday after years of inaction

Casinos in Las Vegas worry about attracting new generations of gamblers. These new generations grew up with smokefree air in restaurants, bars, airplanes.... They've never known smoking in public areas. Brian Christopher, the most prominent slot influencer for younger generations, now exclusively promotes smokefree casinos. (Brian Christopher Leads New Generation Into Smokefree Gaming)

New Jersey modeled its gaming regulations on Nevada's when it legalized gambling. Now it's time for Nevada to follow New Jersey's lead and limit smoking on its casino floors.

A company seeking to take full advantage of potential revenue should cater to their customers’ demands; if majority do not smoke, this should be reflected on the casino floor.

The Demand for Casino Gaming with Special Reference to a Smoking Ban, Thalheimer, Richard, et al.

I created a petition entitled Amend Nevada Clean Air Act to Require Non-Smoking Areas on Casino Floor on change.org. The petition requests that the Nevada State Legislature take the following action:

The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act should be amended as follows:

1. At least 75% of contiguous square-footage on the casino floor should be designated non-smoking.
2. There should be a sufficient buffer zone between the smoking and non-smoking zones to minimize secondhand smoke infiltration.
3. Slot games and video poker paytables cannot be exclusive to the smoking zone. A non-smoker should never be forced to play in the smoking zone.

Why not a complete ban? Two reasons.

One, my goal is to make it possible for non-smokers to play the games they enjoy playing for as long as they want without having to breathe secondhand smoke from a smoker playing near them. That can be accomplished with points 1 and 2: a large non-smoking area commensurate with the percentage of patrons who do not smoke and a buffer zone or physical separation between the smoking and non-smoking zones.

Two, compromise. Casinos can serve both the smoking and non-smoking populations simultaneously.

Please sign my petition if you would like to see Nevada's casinos serve non-smokers better.

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