Political will is a fickle and often illogical phenomenon. The conversation in the public sphere involving members of the Rhode Island legislature regarding an exemption to the state’s indoor smoking ban for casinos is a great representation of those qualities.

While two members of the Rhode Island legislature have vowed to launch another effort to try to end that exemption in 2024, a powerful person in that body seems determined to resist such efforts. The arguments that person makes against that change fall flat upon inspection.

Currently, the Bally’s Tiverton and Bally’s Twin Rivers casinos in Rhode Island hold special privileges in many ways. In addition to having rare licenses to offer gambling to guests, those facilities are among the few places in Rhode Island where people can smoke indoors without violating the state’s ban on such activity.