Poll : 05 August - 18 August 2020

There should be a choice that as long as masks are mandated to be worn, smoking should be banned.  There is nothing so disgusting as sitting near a smoker while wearing a mask.  Their smoke leaves them and gets under the mask the non-smoker is forced to wear.

I agree with vegasdawn: There should have been another choice, that being: Smoking should be banned during the pandemic. Once masks are not required, then the ban should be lifted. Since that choice was omitted, I voted for allowing smoking in casinos. Not the most ideal choice.

Indoor smoking has been banned in more civilized states for years, and the reasons for that exist regardless of CoVid-19. Nevada casinos should stop catering to the cult of destructive self-indulgence and instead, start thinking about the health of their patrons. Most people don't smoke, and the ones that do can control themselves.

There's been a couple of good things come about because of this coronavirus situation. 1) casinos and people are taking a hard look at doing something about the age-old practice of allowing smoking inside casinos even though the majority of employees and customers are against smoking indoors. 2) my 401k stock in toilet paper and paper towel companies is doing great.

1) Government intervention. We don't want more "big brother". The casinos that are non-smoking are all in states that mandate it. 2) Losing a lawsuit by employee(s) that got cancer from second-hand smoke, or 3) People don't go. So, instead of bitching about it in a forum like this, just...don't...go. Banning smoking did not save Silver City. It went under anyway, because the customers didn't go there because of their NS policy.

Re-opening of the casinos as their golden opportunity to institute non-smoking.

One poster in the poll preview had mentioned creating butt huts.  When our old hospital moved to a new one it was opened as totally non-smoking anywhere in the building.  It was pre-announced, patients knew, employees knew.  They built two butt huts (not fancy) on opposite sides of the building that accommodate the cig-addicted patients and employees alike.  Smoking elsewhere on the grounds not permitted.  Few problems with acceptance and compliance occurred upon opening and to this day.  I know some employees who quit smoking rather than spend their one 15 minute break getting to and from the huts from their duty stations.  Doctors were too embarrassed to be seen smoking outside with the patients, so they quit too.

First, Kevin is correct.  The Covid/pandemic issue should not be part of the issue.

Second - the casinos can do what they want.  And so can you.
Patronize whichever casino you like.  Smoking, non-smoking only, take your pick.  If your favorite casino changes to something you don't like, go somewhere else.

I'm a non smoker, but I think When you go to Vegas, you expect smokers and non smokers to mingle in casino floors,just as you expect kids in circus circus and excalibur. That's just part of casinos and hotels. You just can't have everything. So, when I go to Vegas, I just know somewhere, at some time, I'm going to be near ( with social distancing) to a smoker, or at some time I'm goingo to walk in a path way or be in a pool with kids, and it ok, I know I'm in Vegas, it's just part of Vegas, you can't have it your way all of the time.

I vote to ban all smoking at video poker machines. Nothing much worse than to have a heavily smoking customer sit next to you and not only  blow smoke in all directions but hold their smoking cigarette or cigar so that the smoke comes right into your face. As a recovering throat cancer victim I’m frequently forced to move (at times leave the Casino) to escape the proximity of cigarette or cigar smoke.

All smokers should be required to wear a plastic bag over their heads so that they can enjoy the full affect of the smoke. Why waste any of that delicious smoke?

Put some decent VP machines in that smoking room, and I could get along fine.  Let the use determine the size for each property. Please do include the ventilation and keep them clean.  
Oh, and if I sit down next to you and you aren't smoking, I don't light up.  If I'm smoking and you sit down, please don't fake cough and wave at my smoke, just find a different machine.  A little consideration on all sides makes it pretty easy to get along.

I don't mean to rip you, friend, & it is nice of you to not light a cigarette when you sit down next to someone who is not smoking. But if the arrival sequence were the reverse, you imply that your smoking should take precedence over the other person's right to play his machine free of smoke. That just isn't true. You're saying your smoking is only like someone whistling, humming, singing, or playing a certain kind of music: a mere irritant. But your smoke is way worse than an irritant. It is something that (1) makes it impossible for a lot of people (including me) to be able to breathe, because our throat will close up to stop smoke from entering (& breathing is 1 of the 2 prime functions for staying alive, along with heartbeat); and (2) causes medical damage that can kill people, including cancer & heart attacks. Secondarily, dropping down from clouds of smoke to residual smoke in the air, it still pollutes the air with toxins & is unbreathable for many folks (including me).

I have a solution to the rampant problem of nonsmokers getting hit or engulfed by the cigarette smoke of an adjacent-machine player, but it might not be implementable now; it should've been implemented back when the banks of machines were constructed in the first place.  The solution:  Have a transparent pane of hard plastic between every adjacent pair of machines, which is 10 feet tall and extends for 4 feet both out from and in from the edge of the "table" that holds the machines.  While the general air around the bank would still become a bit smoky and thus a bit toxic, the problem of clouds or puffs of smoke hitting the nonsmoker would no longer exist.  To install such barriers now would be costly and labor-intensive, and would only allow each player to have one area on the side of his/her machine for use to place a coin bucket or a purse or a drink, etc. (The ideal design would've put more space between machines such that the barrier would bisect the space into 2 usable spaces.)

A smoker doesn't have to wear a mask properly while partaking of their addiction. That means unnecessary exposure to the virus if the smoker is asymptomatic. The exposure to second and third hand smoke is proven to be dangerous to nonsmokers. Especially employees exposed for eight or more hours at a time. The nonsmokers, just like the smokers, won't forego their pleasure of playing in a casino. If they would all stop going into a casino that allows smoking for a month, the powers that be would realize that nonsmokers are a better investment. Until the nonsmokers quit going into these casinos there will never be change! Make it happen people. You really only have yourselves to blame until you take a stand.

if you need to smoke please do it where I don't have to share it with you.

You say we are the only ones that can make it happen.  How many of us "only ones" are needed to make it happen?  We try, no one listens but the comments keep coming back to us like it's our fault and our staying away from casinos allowing smoking will make it happen. How many years has that NOT worked?  So the non-smokers stay home, and while we're showing the casinos they need us (so far they obviously think they don't) we are living a less than enjoyable life because we can't do something we love to do, even though we non-smokers are in the majority?  So we suffer to make a point that no one seems to be listening to in the first place.  As many people have pointed out, the casinos have a perfect opportunity to make a compromise that could help smokers and non-smokers.  So far they haven't taken advantage of that on their own because they don't think of it as an opportunity.  It'll only happen if legislative action action is initiated. Good luck with that! 

At first I didn't like the idea of banning smoking in a casino. In Ohio they have designated area's closed off from the rest of the casino where smokers can play while smoking. It's actually nice to be in a smoke free casino and I don't think it has hurt visitation. On the other hand, you can still smoke in Southeast casinos in Indiana and they are not as busy. I think location has more of an impact on where people go than smoke or smoke free.

I'm in PA and the casinos have banned smoking during the pandemic. If masks are worn, there should be no smoking. Everyone here is happy without it. Smokers go outside just like in every other commercial building in the US. And I am an exsmoker...I have always hated the smell!

Ray, Silver City did not close because of their non-smoking policy.  It was purchased by a new owner in August of 1999 who was going to renovate it. The casino had been non-smoking since 1991. However, he had problems obtaining a gaming license which meant he could not keep the casino open and a closure was planned for the end of October 1999..  He was ultimately denied a gaming license in 2001 and could not reopen the casino.  He later sold the site.  It had absolutely nothing to do with being a Non-smoking casino.

I've been hearing casino "experts" saying it's been tried and it never works. I think back to a stay at Red Rock where I tried to play in the nonsmoking area, 7/5 Jacks and no cocktail service...  They are right, THAT is never gonna work.
Nobody is asking "If all casinos go smoke free will it succeed?" That is the real question here and I'm betting it will work then. 

No smoking only makes sense now with Covid, and nobody could complain!  In MI, they took advantage of the situation, and all casinos are now non-smoking.  AND THEY’RE BUSY!  I wore a new outfit there the other day and it didn’t stink when I got home.  Lovely!  Majority should rule...fewer smokers than smokers.  Our casinos very simply created a space where smokers can smoke without being mass murderers killing those around them.  This was all settled years ago in restaurants, office buildings, etc.  Why should casinos not comply?!  Just one more deadly reason for us sadly to avoid Vegas.

How many NON smokers have died as a result of either being a previous smoker OR from second hand smoke?  Now, how many smokers have died from not being able to smoke anywhere...a casino, a restaurant, a school...anywhere? I don't have the answer to the first question, but the answer to the second question is ZERO. Right now, casinos have the opportunity to do the right thing, for EVERYONE, and ban all smoking inside the casinos AND in the rooms and help keep healthier patrons coming back for years and years.  In NC, a huge tobacco state, they said the restaurants would all close down when they went non-smoking, said the smokers would quit coming....well, that didn't happen. Either more non smokers filled the seats or the smokers decided that eating was more important than sucking in smoke and polluting the air of all around them. Casinos would realize the same if they find the cahonies to do away with smoking totally.  The majority should rule. A simple yes/no on this QOD would show it

in their analysis of the poll results, the LVA has fallen into a common trap. it assumes that the percentage of people who say they will NEVER go to a nonsmoking casino is accurate. it is... but only in one regard. it is an accurate depiction of what people SAY they will do. as previous smoking bans have shown (restaurants, theatres, stores) there is a big disconnect between what people say that are going to do and what they actually will do. there is no evidence to suggest that smokers won't go to casinos if smoking were no longer allowed. in fact, nonsmoking casinos throughout the country are thriving... and that was in pre-COVID times. they said the same thing about restaurants and bars... and they were wrong. business grew, not declined. 

stop being played by Big Tobacco... it's 2020. the time has come. do the right thing for customers and employees and make casinos nonsmoking.

So Al, as I read your response, you are suggesting that when you come into a place where you know smoking is allowed, and sit down next to a person smoking, you should make it known it bothers you and the smoker should immediately snuff their cigarette for you?  And this doesn't strike you as rude and self righteous?  I prefer the mutual respect path.  It is likely you could find another machine or just have a bit patience.  Here's to all of us being able to find comfortable places to play.