Is Casino Smoking in Missouri Being Extinguished?
Posted on: January 14, 2026, 02:22h.
Last updated on: January 14, 2026, 02:41h.
- Legislation in Missouri seeks to end indoor casino smoking
- Casino revenue has stagnated in the Show-Me State in recent years
- Seventeen states allow some form of casino smoking
Missouri is one of 17 states that allow indoor casino smoking. Yet again, some lawmakers in the Show-Me State hope to amend Missouri’s smoking laws to force gamblers outside to light up.
Missouri’s Clean Indoor Air Law bans smoking inside most public places. However, the state’s 13 casinos have been provided immunity, so long as the gaming floors provide supposedly smoke-free areas, too.
Missouri casinos are allowed to permit indoor tobacco use on up to 30% of their gaming floors.
House Bill 1618, bipartisan legislation from state Reps. Bruce Sassmann (R-Osage), Terri Violet (R-St. Charles), and Adrian Plank (D-Boone) would establish the Missouri Clean Indoor Air Act and rescind nearly all indoor smoking exemptions, including those for gaming facilities.
HB1618 would require “gaming facilities and any other facilities in which any gaming or gambling activity is conducted” to be entirely smoke-free.
Loose Smoking Laws
Under Missouri’s current Clean Indoor Air Law, an owner of a public place or work site can allow indoor smoking so long as they designate an area for tobacco consumption and place the appropriate signage. Health care, day care, and child care facilities, as well as educational facilities, public restrooms, libraries, museums, and art galleries, must be 100% smoke-free.
Restaurants and bars with fewer than 50 seats can allow indoor smoking anywhere, so long as they post a sign saying “Non-Smoking Areas are Unavailable.” HB1618 would overhaul the state’s smoking conditions and remove all of the exemptions, with the lone exception being for cigar and tobacco bars where the business derives more than 50% of its annual revenue from the on-site sale of tobacco products.
While indoor smoking exceptions remain widespread in Missouri, bills to ban tobacco use in most businesses have failed in recent legislative sessions. Similar bills to HB1618 were considered in both 2023 and 2024, and while some cleared committees, no law cleared a chamber of the General Assembly.
Missouri Gaming Revenue
2026 might not be the year for advocates campaigning for smoke-free casinos, as the industry has stagnated.
In Missouri’s 2025 fiscal year that ended June 30, the state’s casinos collectively generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $1.91 billion. That marked just a 1% increase on the 2024 fiscal year when casino win totaled $1.89 billion. Last year was also lower than 2023, when GGR was more than $1.92 billion.
Missouri is bordered by six states that have casinos — Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Only Nebraska and Illinois require casinos to be smoke-free.
A smoking ban could result in some Missourians taking their gaming business into states where casino smoking remains. The smoking rate in Missouri is considerably higher than the national average of 11.6% of adults. The American Lung Association estimates that 16.8% of adults in Missouri smoke tobacco.
No comments yet