Clean Indoor Air Advocates Write to Casino Smoking States, Call for Tobacco Bans

Posted on: September 20, 2024, 08:22h. 

Last updated on: September 23, 2024, 10:13h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

This week, the nation’s largest clean indoor air advocacy group wrote gaming regulators and lawmakers in states where indoor smoking is still allowed, urging them to fight for smoke-free gaming.

clean indoor air casino smoking ANR
A man smokes a cigarette while playing a slot machine in Atlantic City. A national antismoking group has called on states where casino smoking remains allowed to update their regulations to force smokers outside. (Image: The New York Times)

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) sent letters to gaming commissions and key leaders in states where commercial casinos allow or can designate areas for indoor tobacco use. Fifteen states permit indoor cigarettes and cigar use inside casinos. The ANR reached out with policy concerns to 13 of those states, with Arkansas and Nebraska oddly left out.

The ANR’s open letters come in conjunction with September being the gaming industry’s Responsible Gaming Education Month. The antismoking group questions how states can promote responsible play while simultaneously allowing smoking.

Responsible gaming advocates say smoking bans help limit problem gambling because they force smokers to take breaks from their play.

ANR Appeals

The ANR contends that responsible gaming programs are inadequate when indoor smoking lingers.

Allowing smoking on gaming floors not only poses significant health risks to workers and patrons alike, but it also encourages prolonged gambling sessions without breaks — a fundamental tenet of responsible play,” wrote ANR President and CEO Cynthia Hallett.   

“ANR welcomes the opportunity to meet with the Commission to discuss how a smoke-free environment can support and enhance responsible gaming practices. Ending indoor smoking will not only safeguard the health of patrons and employees but also foster a more responsible and sustainable gaming environment for all,” Hallett’s appeal to the Nevada Gaming Commission read. 

Along with Nevada, the ANR reached out to regulators and lawmakers in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

Most of the aforementioned states have clean indoor air laws that prohibit tobacco use inside most workplaces and public environments, but have exemptions for casinos. State lawmakers predominantly possess the authority to change those laws, as efforts to strike down the indoor smoking loopholes through state courts have to date been unfruitful.

The CDC says there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and the only way to fully protect workers and patrons is for casinos to have 100% smoke-free policies.

Smoking and Responsible Gaming

Smoking rates in the United States continue to decline. The American Lung Association reports that the adult smoking rate has plunged from 43% in 1965 to below 12% in 2022.

The smoking rate among regular gamblers, however, is thought to remain considerably higher. A peer-reviewed 2021 study published by ScienceDirect found that over 62% of gamblers who meet the criteria to have a gambling disorder reported tobacco use.

The casino industry maintains that smoking bans hurt revenue and therefore threaten jobs. A Las Vegas-based gaming consultancy in 2022 concluded that such claims go against the industry’s commitments to responsible gaming.

The researchers concluded that indoor smoking allowances are the “antithesis” of responsible gaming controls.

The ANR has helped a grassroots coalition of casino workers against smoking that was initially organized in New Jersey’s Atlantic City to expand into several other casino smoking states. Along with Atlantic City, CEASE — Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects — today has chapters in Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.