Smoking indoors has been banned pretty much everywhere in the United States aside from casinos in Las Vegas and a handful of other locations. You can't smoke in bars, restaurants, or most hotel rooms, but the vast majority of the resort casinos on the Las Vegas Strip not only don't ban smoking, many don't even have no-smoking sections.
And while smoking rules were tightened on Las Vegas Strip casino floors, all the major players including Caesars Entertainment (CZR), MGM Resorts International (MGM), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) stopped short of actually banning it. Now, only MGM's Park MGM has a no-smoking policy, making it the only casino on the Strip to completely ban the practice.
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Arguably, MGM's decision is more about marketing than health. Having the only no-smoking casino is a selling point and that's perhaps part of why Park MGM chose to change its smoking policies when it reopened after its covid shutdown.
"As we looked toward our reopening,” said Park MGM COO Anton Nikodemus in a statement, “we identified an opportunity to be responsive to recurring guest demand for a fully non-smoking casino resort on The Strip.”
No other MGM property has followed and Caesars has a blanket policy for all of its Las Vegas Strip properties.
"Smoking is allowed in the casino, as well as in the smoking-optional hotel rooms. Smoking is prohibited in non-gaming areas of all Nevada casinos, including restaurants and bathrooms," the company shared on its website.
Casino operators want to keep the smoking rules as they are to not force gamblers to go elsewhere to smoke. You don't have to leave the casino floor to drink and having to walk outside or to a designated area to smoke might limit how much people gamble.
It's not a health choice, it's a revenue one, but the majority of Las Vegas's casino workers don't agree with their bosses.
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Las Vegas Strip Worker Want a Smoking Ban
While workers in Atlantic City have led the cause for banning smoking in the city's casinos, Las Vegas casino workers have been more restrained, but a majority of them do support a ban on smoking in the city's casinos.
Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that "while about 90% of its members don’t smoke, only 61% support a ban in casinos, according to member surveys taken in 2022."
“But 40% do not. It’s really not overwhelming amongst our members,” Pappageorge said.
That's an interesting view on the numbers given that 61% of workers taking a position that they know their employer disagrees with seems like a pretty strong majority.
Pappageorge disagrees although he concedes that his membership appears to be moving in that direction.
“We’re going to represent our members and what our members want. That number is moving, of our members supporting a ban, but even amongst members it’s not an overwhelming support yet,” he told the paper.
Smoking Bans Are Bad for Casino Business
While one smoke-free casino might do well as an alternative to every other casino on the Las Vegas Strip, efforts to ban smoking in casinos, not just in Las Vegas but on Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) cruise ships have failed.
"It's a bit of a conundrum," Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley said during a question-and-answer session on Ovation of the Seas during the President's Cruise, the Royal Caribbean Blog reported.
"The dilemma is that there are many people who do want to smoke in the casino. I know that's not a popular response, but it's the truth. I'm not judging anyone or anything, but there's a large group of people who do want to smoke in the casino," he said.
Royal Caribbean's Celebrity brand and Carnival Cruise Line's (CCL) Holland America line, both of which cater to higher-end customers have banned smoking in their casino. When Royal Caribbean has tested doing the same thing, the numbers have not been good.
"Every, I would say, every couple of years, we do test this and we take one or two or three ships and we ban smoking in the casino. And the result is less people go in the casino and that's the reality of it," Bayley explained.
That mirrors other short-term tests in Las Vegas to limit or ban smoking.
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