Casino Smoking Must Be Banned, American Lung Association Advocates

Posted on: January 29, 2025, 04:11h. 

Last updated on: January 29, 2025, 04:11h.

Casino smoking remains permitted indoors on commercial gaming floors in 17 states. Several more states where tribal casinos operate allow for the indoor use of tobacco products. More than 50 years after the dangers of secondhand smoke became known, the American Lung Association is calling on state lawmakers to end casino smoking.

casino smoking American Lung Association
An employee at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut collects cigarette butts from ashtrays in a 2015 file photo. Casino smoking should be outlawed inside commercial venues, the American Lung Association says. (Image: The Bulletin)

The American Lung Association released its “State of Tobacco Control 2025” this week. The report evaluates states’ and the federal government’s actions to eliminate the leading cause of preventable death — tobacco use.

The national nonprofit health organization says 2024 marked the 12th straight year where no state passed a comprehensive smoke-free law or closed loopholes like the many that afford gaming businesses the right to allow indoor smoking.

The review graded each state on how they’re doing in five key areas: tobacco prevention and cessation funding, smoke-free laws, tobacco excise taxes, access to programs designed to help tobacco consumers quit, and whether flavored tobacco products, including menthol, are prohibited.

“The U.S Surgeon General, in a seminal 2006 report on the health effects of secondhand smoke and reaffirmed in subsequent reports in 2010, 2014, and 2024, has concluded that secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard causing or making worse a wide range of diseases and conditions. It also concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke and that the only way to fully eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke in indoor environments is to completely prohibit smoking,” the association wrote in its advocacy for smoke-free indoor workplaces and public places.

Where Is Casino Smoking Allowed?

Commercial casino smoking is allowed in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia. As a result of the indoor smoking allowances, none of those states scored an “A” grade.

In New Jersey, the nation’s second-richest gaming market behind Nevada, efforts in recent legislative sessions have shown adequate support to end indoor smoking in Atlantic City and at parimutuel wagering facilities. But no bill has reached the governor’s desk due to political deadlock and the casino industry’s lobbying influence that a tobacco ban would hurt revenue and lead to job layoffs and possibly a resort or two shuttering.

The plight of New Jersey’s casino workers has become a major statewide issue and has garnered national attention. Unfortunately, promises have been made and broken by the legislature when it comes to passing a smoke-free casinos bill,” the American Lung Association wrote in its New Jersey recap.

“New Jersey continues to see an unholy alliance of the casino industry working side by side with the tobacco industry,” the summary continued. “The organized interests in opposition to smoke-free casinos use the tobacco industry’s playbook minimizing the health effects of employees who continue to be exposed to deadly secondhand smoke, while the industry exaggerates their economic arguments.”

Lung Lobby Fights For Clean Air 

The American Lung Association also went after Nevada, which scored among the lowest of the 50 states.

The state home to Las Vegas has been petitioned by the American Lung Association to expand the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act to include casinos, increase funding for tobacco prevention and control, and update the state tobacco retailer licensing program.

In Pennsylvania, another state with a vast gaming industry, the American Lung Association says the Clean Indoor Air Act should be amended to prohibit indoor smoking at casinos and bars where alcohol accounts for the majority of sales.