We get this question a lot, in various forms. It's a highly charged issue. One side despises cigarette smoke; the other loathes being forced outside for their smoking pleasure.
To answer, a year ago we might have said, "Not a chance." We would've insisted that the non-smoking casino is an experiment that's been tried -- and failed. For example, in 1991, Silver City on the Las Vegas Strip banned all smoking in the building. It did so with great fanfare, then quietly went back to smoking only a few months later and closed down a little while after that. Also, certain casino jurisdictions in Australia have banned smoking in casinos, and their revenues plummeted.
But taking into account recent developments, we’d now have to answer a little differently: "There's a slight chance."
There's definitely a groundswell against cigarette smoking in public places and it's starting to besiege casinos. For example, the Illinois state Senate recently passed a ban on smoking in casinos that will take effect on January 1 if the state House votes for it in May.
A complete casino smoking ban is threatening to take effect in Colorado in mid-2008.
And, of course, the Atlantic City anti-smoking measure, in which 75% of casino floors must be smoke-free, took effect on April 15.
The Atlantic City experience is instructive. New Jersey voters approved a strict ban on smoking in all public places except casinos. Then the A.C. City Council, faced by vociferous lobbying by casino dealers and employees, was poised to extend the ban to the 11 casinos. But the City Council backed down in the face of fierce opposition by the casinos, which claimed they'd sustain losses of 20% of total revenue and nearly 4,000 jobs.
Still, some A.C. casinos are getting ready to open smoking lounges similar to those in airports, while others are trying to separate the 75% non-smoking areas from the 25% smoking areas as much as possible. By September 15, all the casinos must submit plans for separating the smoking and non-smoking sections by walls.
Bill's Lake Tahoe went smoke-free in December. However, the way we understand it, it was more of an economic than a political move. Bill's is a tiny casino that has been struggling against big Harrah's and Harvey's at Stateline, and is trying to stimulate traffic by offering a smoke-free environment. Still, Bill's, Harrah's, and Harvey's are all owned by Harrah's, so it's pretty obviously about marketing.
On the other hand, the fact that most of the poker rooms and some of the bingo rooms in Vegas are smokeless could be a sign of things to come.
How badly would the casinos be affected by a complete ban on smoking? A study conducted last year by the Nutrition Department at the University of Nevada-Reno found that one in five Nevada casino-goers smokes. This correlates with the Atlantic City casinos' claim that their business would decline by 20%. Also, it matches up with the national average of 20.9%. The UNR study involved nearly 18,000 gamblers over a two-month period and found that 22.6% of patrons smoke in Reno casinos, 21.5% in Las Vegas casinos, and 17% in Tahoe casinos. In Vegas, 20.3% smoked in Strip casinos and 26.3% in locals casinos.
Bottom line? Groundswells cannot be ignored. See QoDs 4/507 and 11/27/06, which concern the smoking ban approved by Nevada voters in the last election. The casinos remain exempt, but for how long? If it can happen in Atlantic City, it can happen here. On the other hand, we assume that the Nevada casinos will fight tooth and nail before they'd roll over for it. They have no intention of risking the loss of one out of every five of their customers.
