Bryan Hayes offers simple advice for operators wanting to know how customers and workers would react to banning smoking on the gaming floor: Ask them.
“Just follow the data,” said Hayes, senior vice president of gaming operations at Foxwoods Resort Casino, North America’s largest resort casino, which has prohibited indoor smoking since reopening after the COVID shutdown. “I encourage everyone to conduct surveys, focus groups, everything you can do to get the information, then make a decision that’s best for you and your property.”
He said individual casino studies are likely to echo findings by Foxwoods and several other casinos and groups that show strong support for banning smoking.
Hayes spoke Wednesday at a Global Gaming Expo panel discussion titled “Insights from Non-Smoking Casino Initiatives.” Also on the panel were slot influencer Brian Christopher, founder and CEO of BCSlots, and Tashina Williams, senior content marketing manager for Potawatomi Casino Hotel Milwaukee, which has also had a smokefree gaming floor since COVID. Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, moderated.
All said surveys are relatively easy for casinos to conduct. Hallett said ANRF has worked with tribal and commercial operators to develop a player survey about the gaming environment, which differs from somewhat from asking about incentives or other items players potentially want.
Williams, whose position includes interacting with customers on social media and various review sites, said Potawatomi conducted a survey last month in preparation for the panel discussion. “We had 8,500 responses in a week’s time and I thought it was really telling that our guests wanted to express to us how important it was to stay smokefree. It also was important that we keep smokefree for our employees.”
Hayes said that even before COVID, Foxwoods saw an increase in the percentage of customers wanting to “play in a smokefree environment.”
Christopher, who limits his promotional visits to smokefree casinos and cruises, cited findings from a survey done in conjunction with ANRF:
- 88.5 percent of the general population are nonsmokers, as were 86 percent of survey respondents.
- 89 percent of gamblers with an annual income of $150,000 or more are nonsmokers.
- 14 percent of casino players said they smoke or vape.
- 86 percent prefer playing at smokefree casinos, including those with outdoor smoking areas.
- 34 percent have a health condition that prevents them from spending time around secondhand smoke.
- 91 percent of casino worker respondents are nonsmokers
Hayes said Foxwoods gets constant feedback through a general survey that receives about 10,000 responses a month. Almost 80 percent of guests consistently say they prefer a smokefree environment. Williams said Potawatomi’s findings are similar, with about 73 percent preferring smokefree.
While operators worry that players who smoke might reduce or stop their visits, “no one ever talks about the number of people that don’t come to the property because there is smoking,” Hayes said. “In our survey data, we see that feedback.” He also pointed to the extra costs of a smoking environment, including repeated replacements of furniture, fixtures, and gaming equipment and increased HVAC maintenance. Williams and Hallett also said a smokefree environment reduces health-insurance premiums, in one case by 40 percent.
Williams said Potawatomi has determined that players who vowed not to visit after an indoor smoking ban seldom follow through on the threat. “That’s what we’ve seen property-wide. The play hasn’t decreased. I think we’re actually grabbing more people from Wisconsin.”
Hayes said Foxwoods had similar findings, although the percentage of smokers among high-level players was greater than other casino customers. Because those players reflect a “very small” customer segment, Foxwoods set up a separate salon for them. “On balance,” he said, “we didn’t see any correlation between gaming frequency and smoking prevalence.”
