Park MGM Confirms It Will Be Smoke-Free Upon Reopening Sep. 30

24 Comments

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  no love lost September 16, 2020

  The company I'm employed by allows smoking in your own car on breaks. I get sort of a kick watching the handful of remaining losers rushing out to the parking lot in the middle of winter to burn one in their freezing cars in the 90 seconds they have left. It's absolutely amazing how many people quit smoking altogether when the company did away with the smoking areas many years ago. Many people finally figured out they were bigger than a nasty and offensive addiction.

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  Jon September 15, 2020

  Really hope it works for them - it would certainly now be my number one choice to play at. Choice is always good. There are 51 casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Doesn't seem too much to ask that people have a choice of all of fully smoking casinos, half-and-half casinos with areas of both, and fully smoke-free casinos within that large number.

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  Kevin September 19, 2020

  51 casinos? From the Strat to the airport there are maybe 30

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  Rice September 15, 2020

  Well, this isn't a real try at non-smoking because people can go next door and smoke. To truly have non-smoking it needs to be everywhere and have smoking areas like the LAS airport. I'm guessing this will fail and people will just chalk it up to "See, it won't work" but it's not a real shot at non-smoking.

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  MrBuzzkill September 15, 2020

  Exceptions for eating, drinking, and smoking mean one really doesn't need to wear a mask at a resort except at the front door. So, removing one of those exceptions might mean more masked time for guests. Still, it seems a bit hair-splitting to nanny your guests about sanitizer, masks, hand-washing, and social distancing only to let them chain smoke from the moment they arrive. My hope is that the Park can find enough customers to fill the restaurant seats. I went to the Strat for lunch at noon today. Not a single restaurant was open. A helpful guard said I could sit in the sportsbook, but food and drinks were not being served. think all the resorts are going to have to be happy with weekend-only crowds. BTW: That arch that was supposed to be finished Aug 28th must've been delayed by all the LV Blvd repaving or something. It's still not done. And it's unheard-of for YesCo to be late, so there's external problems, fo' sho'.

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  William Wingo September 15, 2020

  The Park MGM Logo looks like Bhaskara's perpetual-motion wheel, which--surprise!--didn't work.

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  danglingdave September 15, 2020

  I think it is a bad business decision and will haunt them. Do some research on casinos that have gone smoke free, they have all gone belly up. Good example is the Revel in AC, the old Silver Slipper on the strip went non smoking and closed quickly. It is obvious that the Park is not or will not be catering to gamblers. I dont like cigarette smoke and applaud them for their effort, i just think it will backfire. That is my opinion

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• Mike Alexakis" height="43" width="43">
  Mike Alexakis September 15, 2020

  The old Silver Slipper was my favorite gambling destination by far, I still have several books of matches from there, I miss it in a big way... I never did visit it during a no smoking era, and your mention of this is the first I heard. The Silver Slipper closed its doors in 1988, this is 2020, times they are a changin... The business angle on smoking in casinos will play itself out, if the corporate bean counters at the gigantic MGM corporation have this wrong they will change course and pay a hefty price, they are banking on folks like me and my family, and I intend on showing them my appreciation for their courage...

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  Ken September 15, 2020

  Good. Let's hope that this 'non-smoking' idea catches on with the other casinos as fast as the 'resort fees' did.

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  George September 15, 2020

  Gambling is a highly competitive business and casinos are constantly trying to poach each others customers, if there was any real demand for non smoking casinos they would have been commonplace decades ago. Instead, the few that have tried have either closed or gone back to smoking. This is a gimmick by MGM to get somebody to visit their worst performing property, and will end as soon as the numbers are up again. I'm a non smoker myself, and when I enter a room with smoking I stop noticing it within seconds, so I've never seen what all the fuss is about. But some people insist on acting like any room with smoking has just been pumped full of cyanide gas. I for one am happy when casino management tells the anti smoking gestapo to buzz off, especially in a place like Vegas.

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• Mike Alexakis" height="43" width="43">
  Mike Alexakis September 15, 2020

  I agree, "decades ago" this no smoking edict would have been met with a key to the poorhouse, but we find ourselves in vastly different times, with way more scientific knowledge and way fewer smokers... My life experience is nothing like yours is, if I get a hotel room that someone smoked in I run away like Jesse Owens, smoke is literally poisonous, over seven thousand chemical compounds are in tobacco smoke, some are natural, most are not... To you I guess I am "gestapo", all I really ask for is clean air, MGM management has decided that folks like me carry an economic stick, they are a publicly traded corporation, if this made no economic sense they certainly would have never implemented this policy...

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  Jack T. September 14, 2020

  It's about time, or way past time actually. The rest of the Country has banned smoking, except for Nevada. I belong to the Moose Lodge and some 6 years back we had a vote whether to go NON SMOKING, relegating Smokers to the back patio. The same as polls in Vegas, the Smokers said that they would NEVER come back to the Lodge again IF the Ban passed. It DID pass overwhelmingly by 70% plus vote. One year later the membership nearly doubled, as people who did not want to eat & drink in a smoke filled, stinky building, now joined and became NEW Members. And, the Smokers still came and stayed in the back patio. National studies state that the majority of College educated and White Collar workers and wealthy people either quit or never did smoke cigarettes. Sorry, it's a fact. SO, high end Casinos like Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn and Encore should go NON SMOKING. The hotel rooms in those Casinos are high end price, so most of that demographic doesn't smoke cigarettes. So, that could be a Marketing issue and COULD possibly increase hotel and Casino occupancy rates.

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• Blonde4ever" height="43" width="43">
  Blonde4ever September 14, 2020

  I have only played here once in my life but this will encourage me to visit again!

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  Gregory M. Waryas September 14, 2020

  Silver City: no smoking. Silver City : smoking again. No smoking,: no business. End.

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  Jon September 15, 2020

  Silver City was 20 yrs ago. The world is now a VERY different place.

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  James K September 15, 2020

  Atlantic City tried it in 2008. Lifted the ban after 20 days.

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  Boulder Steve September 14, 2020

  This is great. Now when someone complains about my cigarette smoke I can tell them where to go...........Park MGM????????????

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  Mark A. Erichson September 14, 2020

  :) :) :)

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  JP September 16, 2020

  No need, we will all already be there until the other casinos follow suit and appeal to the majority.

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  Tom Riley September 14, 2020

  Hey I have another idea I don't know if any one has ever thought of it or its just to out there. I was thinking when they redo Las Vegas Blvd by the strip corridor why not jazz it up and use colored asphalt.

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  Jackson September 17, 2020

  I can't imagine any Department of Transportation would allow colored asphalt. Everything on public roadways is highly regulated to ensure safety. Besides, the Strip is distracting enough for drivers. Adding multi-colored road surfaces to the mix would be insane. The best you can probably expect is a decorative crosswalk. Of course, crosswalks are few and far between on the Strip.

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  Tom Riley September 14, 2020

  This is good to hear as for the remodel the color they went with is horrible there's no life to it. I'm not sure what else is going on there but that was a bad start.

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• Mike Alexakis" height="43" width="43">
  Mike Alexakis September 14, 2020

  Take a bow, you deserve the lavish praise you heaped upon yourself, you were the first to report what is the very best news in a very shitty year, and I told everyone who listens to my blather all about it when you reported it... The Park MGM will be my resort permanently, its courageous to be a trend setter, I certainly hope others will follow... Of course I will visit and gamble at other casinos, Park MGM in my experience eschews five dollar craps, even at five in the morning, my family has stayed there several times because of the fabulous location and fair room pricing. Park MGM is now my rock, my circle of trust, after a dinner at Hugo's Cellar and a tour of my downtown haunts, its comforting to know we can go to our hotel and not breath chemical laced toxins...

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  Scott Roeben September 14, 2020

  Thanks, yeah, I think they're making a great move. If it tanks, they can do it under the cover of the pandemic, so no harm, no foul, but I think it could end up being a coup and finally reverse some of the outdated myths casinos seem to cling to about smoking and gambling.

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