Will Nevada Casinos Ever Go Non-Smoking?

Just spent the weekend in Reno and was reminded about smoking in casinos. Hadn’t been in Nevada since COVID. The chainsmokers playing on machines were hard to watch, the constant lighting and dragging on the cigarettes difficult and funny at the same time. No smoking in Illinois casinos. Any political, government decisions try to change this?

If you're asking about Nevada -- it's a state-by-state and tribal issue -- the answer is a hard no.

Which isn't especially surprising, given that the casino lobby, the biggest, oldest, best-funded, most powerful, and most intractable in the Silver State, is dead set against banning smoking in casinos. Of course, there's also the Big Tobacco lobby. That's a lot of money and you can come to your own conclusions about whose pockets it's filling.

But it's not limited to here. Other states have taken continual passes on confronting the smoking issue. There, too, the legislatures have sided with the industry over the objections of the employees, unions, and nonsmoking advocacy groups.

Non-tribal casinos outside of Nevada, if they’re smokeless, usually go that route by dint of state-level mandates. If you don’t comply with clean-air regulations in states like Illinois (as you mention in the question), Massachusetts, and New York City (if they ever open), you can forget about opening or operating a casino.

Occasionally, a private-sector owner bucks the trend without government mandate. Parx Casino outside Philadelphia has banned smoking and routinely leads the Keystone State in revenue. Four other smoking-enabled Philadelphia-area casinos lag far behind Parx.

Meanwhile, 150 tribal casinos ban smoking, nearly half of all states require commercial casinos to be smokefree indoors, and nearly 1,100 gaming properties do not permit smoking indoors, according to the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, and they're all still in business.

Indeed, MGM obliquely acknowledged something of that nature when it reinvented and reopened Park MGM (the former Monte Carlo) as a smoke-free casino and hotel. MGM doesn’t break out property-level financial results in Nevada, but executives repeatedly say Park MGM is doing well and it’s become a magnet for top residencies, so the strategy seems to be working.

Still, to answer the question, we're not holding our smoke-free breath for the Nevada Legislature to change the policy anytime soon. Big Gaming and Big Tobacco are against it and that's good enough for the politicians.

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Comments

Donzack Nov-16-2025

Thanks

I know this has been asked a few times before but probably needs to be updated maybe annually. I enjoyed Reno and found better video poker which is all I care about. Have already revisited. Going to try Amtrak in ‘26. It stops walking distance from Silver Legacy.

thebeachbum Nov-16-2025

Park MGM Fan

Not because it is non-smoking but because it is small with good eats and is in a good location.  Smoke’m if you got’m,.  i don’t care.

VegasROX Nov-16-2025

Smoking or not

For non smokers, the suffering continues. If Vegas knew how many have quit coming for that reason alone, it would blow their minds, but they don't seem to mind the drop in revenues.  One day, maybe, they will open their cataract covered eyes and do the right thing.

Bob Nelson Nov-16-2025

It will happen…

When tobacco is banned nationwide, ha ha …

djm Nov-16-2025

Proposals for Nonsmoking Casinos

If Nevada doesn't ban smoking in casinos outright,perhaps they could at least:
1. Require newly built casinos to be smoke-free
2. Require multi-casino operators (eg Caesars, Boyd, Stations) to have AT LEAST ONE casino be smoke-free
3. Require casinos that permit smoking to make the ENTIRE PROPERTY (including restaurants, hotels, attractions) to be restricted to persons age 21+

Randall Ward Nov-16-2025

smokers

I can say that most people under 30 have no idea how smoky casinos can be, I can remember sitting at a BJ table and being the only nonsmoker

Kevin Lewis Nov-16-2025

Solution

A "load" is a substance placed inside a cigarette, meant to b consumed in tandem with the tobacco. My solution to the smoking problem is cyanide loads. Completely random, and relatively rare--let's say, 1 in 50,000. The risk of instant d ath would NOT stop smokers at all, or even induce them to cut back, so we'd see someone light up during a meal and BAM! face down in his soup. Or someone banging away on a Dragon Bozo machine and furiously puffing away when...GAME OVER!

It's what we've all secretly wanted when we've been forced to smell the effluent from a stink-stick.

Donzack Nov-16-2025

Solution

Kevin’s solution sounds like Dangerfields joke about passing around five women at a party with one having v.d. If you’re old enough to know what v.d. is.

John Dulley Nov-16-2025

Gold Coast

My local casino in Washington is smoke free and it’s thriving and expanding, I’m constantly amazed how busy it can get even midweek and midday. The QOD about Reno reminds me of the one and only time I went to the Gold Coast, VERY smoky and VERY depressing..

Marcus Leath Nov-16-2025

Pathetic

I have written numerous letters (yes, real letters) to several casino owners and CEOs over recent years about this issue.  One of interest is South Point: if you walk back past the elevators you will come to the "executive" offices where you see very large and numerous "No Smoking" signs on the walls.  I went in and had a conversation with two of the VPs there.  I ended up saying to them: "So, you people back here don't want to have your health endangered by smoke, but you could care less about all your employees and customers in the casino whose health is endangered very minute by all the nasty smoke?"  They just looked sort of ashamed and mumbled some lame response.  It is all very pathetic.

Raymond Nov-16-2025

Bob

Two things--One, look how well it worked when alcohol was banned nationwide; and Two, would you trust the current Executive and Legislative branches to come up with an effective and fair law??

Jeanine Gruetze Nov-16-2025

Fair laws

In regard to the comment about coming up with fair statewide law: Simply include casino floors in existing clean-air laws, which apply to workplaces and almost all buildings open to the public. Most states already have such laws on the books. The unfairness is that many of those laws exempt casino floors. In New Jersey, you can't smoke on the beach, but you can go in the casino and light up. How fair is that to the casino workers and roughly 85-90 pct. of customers exposed to known carcinogens?

Jeff B. Nov-16-2025

Too much money in smoking...

I wish they would all go non-smoking, but I don't see it happening because it's a significant money maker. Even those tribal casinos that sell cigarettes aren't ever going to change.  

I also have a friend who ONLY smokes when they're in Vegas. It's how they become bad boys (or girls) and do things they would never do back home. 

With that, I wish they would go non-smoking, as I have allergies. I've left tables with too many smokers before. When I returned to the same table after the smokers had left, the pit boss came over and asked if I had left because of them. When I said yes, she thanked me as if she were taking a survey.  

But since we have to put up with smokers, I do get a little kick when a dealer turns their little fan towards the smoker's face so the smoke blows back at them.  That just makes me giggle.

Bob Nelson Nov-16-2025

Raymond

Not sure it would actually happen nationally but a lot of states are cutting it back by making it very expensive to commit suicide by cancer.  Still would love to see enough backbone in all states to ban indoor smoking without exceptions for casinos.  I mostly play live poker and most rooms are smoke free which is great.  Still often have to walk through a smokey casino to get to the poker room though.

VegasROX Nov-17-2025

Mrbrain...expenses

As I understand, no expenses can be claimed towards any gambling UNLESS you claim as a professional gambler, AND have all the detailed logbooks, to back up every win, loss, when and where, how much and for how long, which casino, etc. While anyone who plans on taking gambling losses on their taxes, would be well served to keep the same detailed logs, per the advice of our own expert, the Wonderful Jean Scott.

Question of the Day - 16 November 2025

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