Rhode Island Casinos Retain Smoking Privileges, Though Only in Enclosed Areas
Posted on: June 23, 2025, 09:27h.
Last updated on: June 23, 2025, 09:59h.
- Rhode Island casino smoking will remain
- State lawmakers passed legislation limiting casino smoking to enclosed chambers
- The smoking lounges must prevent any flow of secondhand smoke to the nonsmoking areas
Rhode Island casino smoking will remain after lawmakers, on their final session day of the year, approved a bill that curtails where cigarettes can be consumed, but allows tobacco use to remain.
After months of politicking, with the General Assembly most focused on bills that would have fully extinguished cigarette smoking at Bally’s Lincoln and Bally’s Tiverton in exchange for more marketing money from the state, lawmakers folded on forcing the two properties that generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue to go smoke-free. Instead, Senate Bill 188, with amendments, passed and now heads to Gov. Dan McKee’s (D) desk for his signature.
Senate Bill 188 amends the 2004 Rhode Island Public Health and Workplace Safety Act to repeal most indoor smoking exemptions afforded to casinos. The bill specifically rescinds the casinos’ ability to designate nonsmoking and smoking areas on their gaming floors.
The casinos can still opt to allow casino smoking in a fully enclosed area that has “a proper ventilation system” that prevents “the migration of smoke to nonsmoking areas.”
Bally’s Pushback
SB 188 was initially sponsored by Rep. Teresa Tanzi (D-Narragansett) until it was amended to allow for enclosed smoking spaces and she removed her name from the bill. Tanzi and some other state lawmakers opposed the enclosed smoking rooms where secondhand smoke will continue to threaten certain Bally’s employees’ health. The legislation doesn’t specify whether employees can be required to work in the smoking chambers.
Tanzi, who supported a complete smoking ban, said the compromise is what the casino workers’ union wanted. She was one of only four “nay” votes against 68 in favor of SB 188.
“The entity that runs these casinos had asked us for $8 million, $17 million. We offered them a million last year. They didn’t want it,” Tanzi said of other legislation that would have increased Bally’s state marketing subsidy in exchange for smoke-free casinos.
They came to us asking for $25 million. It’s kind of gutsy, isn’t it? And now they stand in the way of the workers getting a smoke-free workplace,” she added.
Rep. V. Susan Sosnowski (D-South Kingstown), who championed SB 188 following Tanzi’s exit, said the compromise best satisfied both sides.
Everyone deserves to breathe clean air in the workplace. Yes, we want a casino that’s making money because we depend on that revenue — but we want our workers to be strong, healthy, and vibrant as they’re making money for our state,” Sosnowski said.
Patti Doyle, a spokesperson for Bally’s, said the company was “grateful” for a compromise that allows the casinos “to accommodate our smoking patrons.”
Where Casino Smoking Remains
Cigarette use rates continue to decline nationwide, with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that 11.6% of US adults, or 28.8 million people, are smokers. That’s almost half of the number of Americans who smoked in 2001.
Many states prohibit indoor smoking in casinos, though some still allow tobacco use. Along with Rhode Island, states where indoor casino smoking remains include Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia. Tribal casinos, as sovereign businesses, can decide whether or not to allow indoor smoking.
Last Comment ( 1 )
On and on… it’s will always be a smoke pit. The main core Asian Americans love to gamble and smoke