I’m a former smoker. I quit more than 15 years ago now. As such, I’m keenly aware of the arguments about why some players prefer a smoking section in a casino. I was certainly one of them in my 20s.
But following the recent coverage that saw a judge deny casino workers’ latest attempt to compel casino floors to go smokefree, it continues to boggle the mind why casinos are often not willing to play ball when it comes to offering smokefree spaces, as opposed to divided (yet fully open floorplan) floors.
Here’s Brian Christopher’s LinkedIn post on the recent development:
When the topic comes up, many players ask a theoretically simple question: Why can’t there be both smoking and non-smoking areas? It certainly makes sense on the surface, but the problem is the implementation of it is almost always far from perfect.
Here’s a personal example. A few years ago I was at the Borgata in Atlantic City. There, the rules for some time have been that a casino floor needs to be a minimum of 75 percent non-smoking. The problem is beyond that there aren’t really any other requirements on how that is set up.
So smoking and non-smoking sections tend to be near each other, sometimes in comical ways, spread out throughout the floor with no walls separating them.
I found myself at one point at a bank of non-smoking slots while another gentleman sat down, across a narrow aisle less than 10 feet away, at a bank of smoking slots. He began to smoke, and like in the cartoons, I found the smoke wafting directly from his cigar to my nose.
Even if you can’t smell it as distinctly as I did, shared spaces don’t really accomplish anything to protect the non-smoker, even if you can’t distinctly smell it in the air at the time. Smoke doesn’t respect a smoking area’s boundaries.
A study was conducted in Las Vegas between Park MGM and other casinos that still allowed smoking in parts of the casinos. Even in areas of the casino where smoking wasn’t directly allowed, such as restaurants, the air quality was below what are considered healthy levels, whereas at Park MGM the air was much better.
Most casinos don’t enclose smoking spaces in walls with separate ventilation like you see at the Harry Reid airport in Las Vegas or at MGM Grand in Detroit. It’s often just placing smoking and non-smoking sections in the same open air space, with no barriers protecting the non-smokers from the pollution being generated in the smoking areas.
This is why the push for non-smoking indoor spaces has been so important. Casinos are spaces where players sit for hours, and tend to visit often. Certainly the employees of these properties also spend thousands of hours a year in these spaces, but the players in some cases aren’t necessarily too far behind.
Some argue that if you don’t like smoking spaces, just go somewhere else. That’s a flawed argument to say that because some minority of the population are comfortable with breathing in smoke, everyone else has to bow to their preference. And although there’s plenty of places to gamble throughout the United States, it doesn’t mean those that are truly smokefree are accessible to everyone.
Indoor smoking has been phased out of a variety of other businesses over the years as a health and safety measure. Casinos should be no different – just because smoking has been allowed doesn’t mean it should remain allowed.
Most smokers don’t want to sit in smoky air either – they prefer to smoke outside nowadays, no doubt comfortable with this process because of the changes elsewhere. And casinos are able to craft comfortable spaces for them that don’t impact the majority of their guests with the smoke. Some are even offering outdoor venues that include gambling options, so players who wish to gamble can still do so.
Some of my local casinos where I grew up converted to permanent non-smoking facilities in recent years, and I actually found myself going more often and staying longer as I didn’t feel as icky afterwards. I used to lose my voice when visiting the casinos for longer trips from the rough air, and now I don’t. The data shows they haven’t been negatively impacted by the change, a sign that the tide has been turning around the need to have a smoking casino floor.
The days of putting a smoking section next to a non-smoking section and saying that’s good enough… well, it’s not good enough. We know more about the dangers of smoking as well as second-hand smoke, we’ve seen more casinos make the transition successfully, and it’s time to get better about protecting the health of the players who visit regularly.
Our Casinos in Az are smoke free and they are packed! People can go outside and grab a smoke l.
Thanks for this Leigh – we definitely have seen that they keep busy from our own travels to them!
I am a smoker in Oklahoma. As your aware some casinos have designated smoking areas some do not. Yes there are no solid barriers that separate them. I believe they all should go NON SMOKING.
I will smoke a whole pack of ciggarettes in three hours sitting there pushing the button. Thats sick..lol Have tried to quit many times..Ill keep trying and hoping they ban it here so youll come back..
#dealin with it..
Hey Bill, we appreciate your comment, and you raise something we’ve heard a few times this week – some smokers realize they end up smoking more while sitting at the slots than they would in other situations. Meanwhile, one of the important aspects of responsible gaming is taking breaks, such as that short walk to a smoking patio or area – so making that shift can actually be beneficial in multiple ways. We hope to be back to Oklahoma in the future when some smokefree options arise!
Great job Brian, we love playing at the Brian Christopher slots area in the PLAZA. It means a lots to us and totally agree with what you said in this article. We love to gamble and wish all casinos had no smoking period.
We hate showering getting dressed up to have a lovely evening only to be bring the smell of smoke back into our room where we r staying.
Keep up the hard work.
We love you,
Bruno/Christopher and Helen DeMarco.
Peace and Love.
Thank you both for the comment, and of course we agree – we choose to play in a smokefree environment, so that our entire team isn’t being impacted by the negative health scenarios that comes with all the time we spend in casinos. The smell is certainly another negative side effect!