Will Smoking Eventually Be Banned from Casino Floors?

Is there a smoking-ban in the future for Vegas casinos? After more and more poker rooms go smoke-free, anti-smoking activist group Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke (GASS) has set their sights on clearing the casino floors of Vegas from smoke. Stephanie Steinberg started this organization when she heard the concerns of casino workers, who felt their health was at risk, working day-in and day-out on the smoke filled casino floors. Spokesperson for GASS and professional poker player, Tom McEvoy, pushed for a smoke-free WSOP, and in 2004 the tournament did ban smoking. Poker experts say that the increase in attendance at the WSOP is partly due to the smoking bans.

While casinos realize that many gamblers don’t smoke, and those who are smokers aren’t necessarily their best customers, to change such a large component of the industry is just hard. It would require a lot of pressure on the casinos to encourage them to change on their own. Casino executives claim they already accommodate nonsmokers by providing smoke-free hotel rooms and other areas like smoke-free slots and other gambling areas. Many casinos don’t want to mess with a good thing, especially during times of economic uncertainty. Opponents of the smoking ban also argue that smoke dissipates more quickly beneath the lofty and high ceilings of casino floors.

Perhaps they should consider what happened in the UK when smoking bans were placed on all the bingo rooms in the country. Attendance dropped at the live bingo spots, and players stayed home and logged on to the Internet to get their bingo fixes.

So, smoking bans mean good news for online gambling sites and another social shift from brick and mortar establishments to virtual casinos, where gamblers can sit comfortably in front of their ashtrays and smoke.