Awash in data on seemingly everything from how often an individual gambles to what they like for dinner, many casinos are uncharacteristically shy about gathering some vital player information.
These operators don’t dare to ask whether a smokefree gaming floor would increase, decrease, or have no effect on how often players visit or how much they gamble. Nor do they ask if tobacco users would be content with an easily accessible outdoor smoking area at their home casino if they couldn’t puff away on the gaming floor. Operators don’t want to find out whether people who smoke, roughly 11 percent of the population and continuing to drop, would really travel an additional half-hour or more to reach a casino if their hometown favorite became smokefree. Big operators fight shareholder proposals to determine how much smoking costs in terms of higher health insurance, maintenance, and repair costs, let alone the impact on the health of casino employees and other customers. Many operators shrug off the idea that casinos should have to follow smokefree laws that virtually every other entertainment site and business must adhere to.
Despite numerous recent real-world examples to the contrary, many operators steadfastly argue that making gaming floors smokefree would instantly and permanently reduce casino and jurisdictional revenue, while eliminating jobs. It’s one of the few instances in which top business executives stubbornly promote a conclusion based on so little data.
“The issue of smoking is so sensitive for the industry,” said Bronson Frick, director of advocacy for the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Both the tobacco and gaming industries have been hand in glove, opposing measures to apply clean-air laws to casinos. “COVID changed everything for the gaming and hospitality industry, including old assumptions about indoor smoking,” Frick added.
A recent webinar sponsored by Spectrum Gaming Group, Management Science Associates, and Spectrumetrix also pointed out players’ growing acceptance of smokefree gaming since the pandemic. The presenters didn’t make any recommendation about going smokefree and they didn’t have access to data about health issues or potential cost savings of a smokefree gaming floor.
In an interview after the webinar, Spectrum executive vice president Joseph S. Weinert said findings presented during session didn’t undermine the company’s 2021 analysis for the New Jersey Casino Association, which opposes a bill to ban smoking on Atlantic City gaming floors. “Spectrum stands behind the research, analysis, and conclusions of its 2021 report,” he said, noting that the proposed ban would affect all New Jersey operators. “A critical assumption in our 2021 study (was) that Pennsylvania would continue to allow smoking. We found that in this scenario, Atlantic City (casinos) would experience revenue declines and we stand behind that finding today.”
Other post-COVID studies found smokefree gaming gaining popularity among players. In 2021, widely respected gaming market researcher Mike Meczka, now deceased, presented findings of his study of Pacific Northwest gamblers’ opinions regarding smoking after COVID lockdowns. The research, unveiled at the annual Indian Gaming Association conference, showed the attraction of allowing smoking on the gaming floor had diminished dramatically, with a casino’s proximity being the most important factor for deciding where to play for the biggest segment of respondents (32 percent), followed by 26 percent choosing casinos that forbid indoor smoking. An online survey by slot machine mega-influencer Brian Christopher found that 86 percent of casino visitors prefer smokefree gaming; among players with an annual income of at least $150,000, the figure is 89 percent. The survey was conducted between December 2023 and January 2024.
Weinert said the decision on whether or not to allow smoking on gaming floors rests with public policy makers and individual operators. “I don’t know of a single casino GM who likes cigarette smoke. They tend to know their customers really well and there’s a reason they’re fighting a potential ban, particularly in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.” Casino executives are obligated to generate the stakeholder profits to the best of their ability, he continued, and they believe a smoking ban “is inimical to those interests.”
Philadelphia’s Parx Casino and Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods are among the numerous casinos that have been voluntarily smokefree since COVID and are flourishing, as are casinos in any of the 21 states that ban smoking in commercial casinos. The flurry of operators vying to build a multi-billion-dollar casino in New York City, which will have to be smokefree under state law, is further evidence that clean air doesn’t deter people from gambling.
While Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming, Wynn Resorts, and Penn Entertainment all operate successful casinos in smokefree jurisdictions, the companies battle shareholder proposals to assess the cost of allowing smoking on gaming floors where it’s allowed. The exact reason for not wanting to calculate those expenses is unstated. Maybe corporate executives simply don’t want to know, because of potential legal ramifications or labor relations. Maybe they simply don’t want to be proven wrong.
“It’s interesting that most operators don’t even ask their employees or customers about smoking status or preference,” Frick said. “With nearly 90 percent of people being nonsmokers, that would be important baseline data to have. The fact that they don’t ask this is very telling, but it also means that they’re literally guessing about smoking preferences.”
Frick called indoor smoking a growing business risk to casino operators.
“It’s imperative for the industry to understand that smokefree indoor air isn’t a bad thing,” he said. “It’s good for business and simply shifting smoking to an outdoor patio is an easy practical solution.”
