Casino Smoking in Iowa Could Be Extinguished Should Bill Find Support

Posted on: February 20, 2025, 09:19h. 

Last updated on: February 20, 2025, 09:58h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More

Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

• Iowa casinos can allow smoking anywhere on their gaming floors
• Legislation to end the casino smoking loophole is progressing
• Bills to halt a Cedar Rapids casino have also been filed

Casino smoking in Iowa is allowed anywhere on the 19 commercial, riverboat, and racino gaming floors. A statute to end the smoking allowance is progressing in the Des Moines capital.

This week, a House Commerce subcommittee voted to move forward House Study Bill 148. Filed earlier this month by Rep. Shannon Lundgren (R-Peosta) and co-sponsored by Rep. Sami Scheetz (D-Cedar Rapids), the bill would amend the Iowa Smokefree Air Act.

Enacted in 2008, the law protects Iowans from secondhand smoke in most public places and work settings. The statute, however, provided a few exemptions, with one being for indoor smoking in licensed gaming facilities.

It is one of the reasons I ran,” Lundgren said of her entry into state politics nearly a decade ago. A former casino lobbyist, Lundgren’s family co-owns the Trackside Bar & Grill where smoking isn’t allowed.

Scheetz, who represents Cedar Rapids where the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC) approved a casino application earlier this month, said the elimination of casino smoking would protect Iowa workers. A state smoking ban wouldn’t apply to Iowa’s four tribal casinos, though Prairie Flower has elected to go smoke-free. 

Smoking Bill Faces Long Odds 

Among the 27 states with commercial casinos, 16, including Iowa, continue to allow indoor smoking in either designated areas or anywhere on the gaming floors. Opponents of banning tobacco use inside Iowa casinos say such a regulatory change would put the properties at a competitive disadvantage with casinos in neighboring Missouri, as well as at tribal casinos in Wisconsin and Minnesota where cigarettes and cigars can be lit.

Proponents say it’s time to protect casino workers from toxic secondhand smoke. They say it could help Iowa’s escalating cancer rate. Backers also contend that smoke-free casinos can be good for business, as it lowers employers’ health care costs, and with smoking rates declining, many gamblers today prefer a smoke-free environment. 

Cedar Rapids Casino Update 

The development team behind the Cedar Crossing Casino that gained approval from the IRGC this month plans to allow tobacco smoking. New legislation, however, seeks to stop the project in its tracks.

After a moratorium on new casino licenses failed and the IRGC greenlit the $275 million project, state Sen. Scott Webster (R-Bettendorf) and Rep. Megan Jones (R-Clay) filed companion bills seeking to ban “urban renewal” projects from including gaming.

The bill prohibits an urban renewal plan from including projects related to the property upon which a license has been issued on or after January 1, 2025, to a licensee to conduct gambling games … and prohibits the urban renewal area from including the property upon which such a licensee operates,” Webster and Jones’ Senate Study Bill 1159 and House Study Bill 208 reads.

Cedar Rapids has agreed to sell roughly 25 acres of city-owned land to the Cedar Crossing Casino developers. The property, located west of the Cedar River, remains largely vacant 17 years after the 2008 Iowa floods.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said after the IRGC signed off on the casino that its development will play a vital role in the renewal of the city’s northwest side.