Smoking is Legal in Las Vegas Casinos
Despite all the new science coming out about the effects of smoking, its still legal in Las Vegas. There is a smoking ban at places that serve food, and you can’t smoke at the poker table, but other than that it’s free puffing anywhere you want.
Blackjack, roulette, slot machines and the entire casino floor are still fair game.
How bad is it? After going on a 10k run on the Strip one morning, and simply walking back through the lobby of New York New York to the elevator, my fiancee remarked “you stink like smoke.” A 45s walk across the casino floor in sweaty running clothes was enough to suck in all the stink.
Every day I felt like I’m living in a night club. Never mind choosing a non smoking room, after spending the day in the smoky casinos, you truck all the stuff back to your room, and lay your smoky hair on your pillow at bedtime and the room request becomes pointless.
While most of the world is moving to restrict smoking, the Nevada government actually moved this past month to EASE smoking restrictions.
A bill to weaken an anti-smoking initiative approved by the voters has been passed by the Senate 14-5.
Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said Senate Bill 372 does not ignore the will of the voters. Amodei said sometimes initiative petitions approved by the voters need “tune-ups.”
The bill, which goes to the Assembly, provides that taverns or saloons that have a gambling license can permit smoking, but they must keep children out of the business. It would also permit smoking in a convention that is not open to the public, is devoted to the tobacco or convenience store business and involves the display of tobacco products.
[Las Vegas Sun]
What baffles me the most about smoking bans is how 20% (or less) of the population can participate in activity that has been chosen to adversely affect the rest of the population with few limitations or controls. They are allowed to perform this behaviour with reckless abandon, and few dare stand in their way.
But what about the health of their workers? What about the health of the visitors? Las Vegas is all about the odds, and so I’m shocked that a 20% portion of the population gets to call the shots and make a stink in this town.
There are some smoke free play areas, but they’re few and far between.
• Bellagio designates some gaming areas, including the poker room as non-smoking. They evaluate each pit in the casino and make adjustments day-to-day for nonsmokers.
• Harrah’s has a 1,000 square foot non-smoking gaming section, which includes reel slots, video poker machines, blackjack and roulette tables.
• MGM Grand offers nonsmoking gaming tables and a designated nonsmoking slots section in the main casino.
• The Mirage has fresh air pumped into the poker room and contaminated air pulled out of the building.
[About.com]
Basically boils down to this: if you want to avoid the smokers in Las Vegas and stay inside with the cool air conditioning, there are only 2 places you can go: the poker table or the buffet.
No wonder everyone is broke and fat.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
if the Nevada government had to pay for Health Care like the BC government… there wouldn’t be much smoking allowed in public places.
That said… I don’t smoke and generally hate it… but I like that in Las Vegas, everything flies. no rules. Sucks that people smoke, but it is fantastic that i can walk the street with a giant novelty plastic guitar filled with syrupy sweet margarita.
Was at the MGM last month and the “non-smoking” tables were never open. That, and they are right next to the smoking tables.
Should make the “High roller” rooms into non-smoking tables, nobody going in there anyway.
Smoking is legal. So is wearing a maks which filters impurities from the air. I wonder when those who are militantly concerned about the effects of second-hand smoke will start to take their health into their own hands and defend themselves against smoke rather than attack those who are exercising their legal right to enjoy life as they see fit.
If you want change, get tobacco banned. Until then, I will vehemently defend the right to smoke.
With the economy in the state that it is in you would be surprised to see the effects of a smoking ban. In many other regions across the country, smoking has been banned in casinos and the results are staggering. In AC alone, there was a partial ban and the numbers plumetted in the double diggets. Same results have been shown in Illinois, most of the casinos have seen significant decline in performance. Couple that with a bad economy and states are going to be hard pressed to ban smoking since so much of the casino revenue goes to the state coffers.
Although I don’t smoke, I have seen how it affects the bottom line and don’t want to see it banned right now. You have a choice to enter a casino or not, and if you are that against the smoke than you shouldn’t go at all IMO. And although I see the position for the employee, they also have the option of working elsewhere.
Public health > Casino profits
If you had any sense, you’d go to the casino and breathe in the smoky scent of the happy, smoking tourists puffing away at their Marlboros while they slap the dollars down on the blackjack table.
Believe this: You alienate the smokers, the non-smoking public WILL NOT replace them. It just doesn’t work that way. That kind of backfill would take decades if it happened at all.
Las Vegas is an economy based on sin and vice. Embrace it. People go there to gamble, drink, smoke, and watch topless girls dance. They go there to enjoy other things that are less legal, but which are readily available in Las Vegas. If you folks in Sin City had an ounce of sense, you’d make all that legal, as well, and tax the heck out of it all.
You’ve got gambling numbers way, WAY off, and you can’t afford to do anything to drive people away. Do everything, and mean EVERYTHING you can do to make those smoking, drinking, gambling and fornicating sinners happy, because they are your bread and butter.
You all want to ban smoking in public places because it’s “bad for people”? What are you thinking? Ditch the moral majority nonsense in Winnemucca and let Vegas get down to it’s core business. Don’t like the smoke? Go live in a place where sin isn’t industry #1.
I don’t smoke. I’ve lived in Vegas, and it ain’t that bad, you whiners.
Smokers make up less than 1/3 the clientele. If 1/3 are doing something that affects the 2/3 adversely, I’d do everything in my power to keep the majority happy.
yes but that 1/3 of the clientele are the people who return every night to make up that night's 1/3 of the clientele.
so making 2/3 of the non smoking clientele “happier” will not account to the 1/3 loss you sustain by telling smokers they can't smoke in your casino anymore.
also understand that of the 2/3 majority, probably 50% of them do not even care about the smoking in casinos.
so now all of the sudden, by banning smoking, you are really only benefiting 33% of your clientele.
math can be fun, can't it Buzz.
i would also like to point out that of the comments posted on this page, 4/7 of them are for smoking in vegas.
and 2 of those 4 comments for allowing smoking, were posted by non smokers.
see, 50%. just as i said.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.
Having a designated smoking areas is only proper. There are more non-smokers than smokers so considerations must be given to them.