Len Lombardo, 74 and retired, rests his cigarette against a black plastic ashtray as he pushes a $5 button on a high-limit slot machine at the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. Nearby, a 62-year-old Pennsylvania woman on a winning streak takes a drag from a Newport, as does her sister sitting at the machine to her right.

The smell of burning cigarettes and smoldering cigars hangs in the air, a jarring throwback to a time before 2006, when indoor smoking was outlawed virtually everywhere else in the state.

Across the country, the hazy scene has become increasingly rare since pandemic shutdowns led many casinos to rethink employee and customer safety and long-term business models.