Ask the Slot Expert: Smoking in casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas

Sometimes procrastination pays off.

At the end of a column a few weeks ago, I said that I would address a reader's comments about my efforts to get more non-smoking areas in Las Vegas casinos.

I appreciate your efforts to establish more non-smoking areas in Nevada casinos. I recently have dramatically decreased the number and duration of my trips to Las Vegas, and the reeking of smoke in most of its casinos is foremost among the many reasons for the reduction in my visits...those of us in the northeast have largely been spared the nuisance of smoke in our gaming areas....

A few days ago, I received this email:

I saw your petition to make the majority of the casino floor non-smoking in Nevada. I didn't sign it, because I don't think that it will do much good. If you put up a petition to completely ban smoking, I will gladly sign it.

I mainly gamble in Atlantic City, almost only at the Borgata, but I have gambled at all of the current and former Atlantic City casinos over the years. I usually only go to Las Vegas for the MGM holiday gift event in December. The law in Atlantic City is that 75% of the gaming floor has to be non smoking, but for the most part, the law doesn't work. As a video poker player that mainly plays 9/6 Jacks or Better, pretty much any casino that has these games will put them in the smoking section. I recently discovered the Multistrike version at the Borgata has those machines in the non-smoking section, so there is less smoke there.

But in general, the more desirable games will be placed in the smoking section. As far as video poker, my theory as to why the better games are usually in the smoking section is because smokers are less intelligent. The same machines that offer 9/6 Jacks or Better also have a much worse 9/5 Double Double Bonus and other bad games, and smokers are more likely to play the worse games and to not play them correctly. Non-smokers are more likely to play 9/6 Jacks or Better and to play it correctly. Also, many non-smokers will decide to play the worse games available in the non-smoking section because they don't want to die and/or can't take the smoke. Many of my video poker friends play mainly very late at night when there is much less smoke.

The way this works in Atlantic City is that there are no rules as to distance, so machines in a smoking section can be right next to machines in a non-smoking section. Sometimes there are large non-smoking areas, sometimes they are intermingled with the smoking sections. As far as enforcement, there is none. There is supposed to be a fine for smoking illegally in the non-smoking section, but I've never seen anyone fined. Security is inadequate and I've seen people walking past security guards smoking a cigarette where it isn't allowed and not being noticed or stopped.

This is all corporate greed. The casinos are afraid to alienate smokers, so security and other employees aren't trained or instructed to go after them. It's very rare that any casino employee including security, on their own initiative, will inform a smoker that they are not allowed to smoke there. Usually I have to find and flag down a security guard to stop someone from smoking.

When security or other casino personnel do contact someone illegally smoking, there is no fine or penalty or any adverse consequence for the smoker. The best case scenario is that they will be asked to put out their cigarette. Frequently, they allow the smoker to get up and move to the smoking section to smoke, walking through and stinking up the non-smoking section as they walk through it to get to the smoking section. Usually by the time I find the security guard, the smoker has walked away and they can't do a thing. Once I called security over for a woman who was smoking in the non-smoking section 4 times. Each time, the security guard politely asked her to put out her cigarette, and each time after the guard left, she lit up again. No fine, no punishment, and she wasn't even forced to go to the smoking section.

The police won't even enforce the law. One of the clubs had Atlantic City police officers, in uniform, outside the club because there tends to be fights between young drunk people. I asked them if they would enforce the smoking laws and they told me that it wasn't their job.

I've also found that some smokers tend to be violent. Probably the only reason no one has ever physically attacked me is because there are cameras everywhere and while they know that there are no repercussions for illegally smoking, they will go straight to jail if they try to hit me. One time, someone playing about 20 feet away from me started smoking. I found a slot attendant, and she did ask him to put out his cigarette and he complied. But then he started bothering me, asking me if I worked there and telling me it was none of my business. I told him that it was my business because the smoke affects me. He then threatened to beat me up, and he might have come over to me if his girlfriend didn't stop him. I immediately got up, pulled out my money from the machine, headed straight to security, and told them that I wanted to press charges for assault because he threatened me.

In retrospect maybe I should have called 911 because casino security was useless. She talked to the guy and then came to me and told me that he was told not to talk to me, and that if he did, he would have to leave the casino. Shortly after that, he and his girlfriend started calling me a loser, so I went back to security. He still wasn't thrown out and only got another warning, but this time he left me alone. Keep in mind that this was a fairly large guy in his 20s and I'm 64, but I'm pretty sure I could easily outrun him if he tried to come over to me.

The common walkways are not on the casino floor and are non-smoking, but people frequently smoke there and no one stops them. At the Borgata, there is no security whatsoever in the area between the self parking lot and the casino floor, and people are frequently smoking on their way to and from the parking lot. Now people are trying to get away with vaping, which is on the same par as smoking, and I've caught 2 people vaping in the Amphora Lounge (gold and above high end buffet), and smoking is never allowed in dining areas and everyone knows it.

Anyway, I've found the smoke in Las Vegas casinos to be somewhat less bad than in Atlantic City. Sections would make it better if what you want to play is in the non-smoking section, but if you play the better or more popular games, or want to be in the high limit room, chances are that you will be in the smoking section and the smoke will be a lot worse. And if the Atlantic City casinos don't want to enforce the rules, the Las Vegas casinos won't be any better, unless the police go into the casinos and start issuing fines or arresting people, and I doubt that would happen.

As a side note, I once contacted one of the anti-smoking organizations I belong to and suggested that they sue for a complete ban, because the current laws aren't being enforced. They told me that they wouldn't do that, because that would put them in the position of saying that smoking sections are acceptable, and there is no safe level of secondhand smoke.

I too would prefer a complete ban on smoking. If bars, restaurants, office buildings, and airlines can survive without smoking, so can casinos.

Calling for a complete ban would mobilize the casino legal departments in full force. Politicians are afraid of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Plus, they are influenced by campaign donations.

In today's economic and political climate, and volatile visitation and revenue numbers, not only is such a radical change as completely banning smoking unlikely to be enacted, even my compromise of 75% non-smoking will not happen. Perhaps that's just as well because any downturn after a smoking change will be blamed on the change.

I'm hoping for a better political environment in 2029.

Casinos sometimes put their least desirable machines in their non-smoking sections. Years ago, I checked out the non-smoking section at Sam's Town in Las Vegas. The machines were old, probably one stop away from being junked. I don't recall seeing any of the latest hot games there.

I can imagine execs saying, "See. Players don't want non-smoking areas." File under self-fulfilling prophecy.

I try to address the "good machines only in smoking" problem in my proposal by saying that games can't be exclusive to the smoking section. That shouldn't be a problem because most casinos have more than one machine of a given game and only 25% of my proposed slot floor is smoking. The slot floor layout question changes from "What do we put in non-smoking?" to "What do we put in smoking?"

I remember one casino that flirted with being non-smoking in the past. Silver City was failing and probably thought it had nothing left to lose. It went smoke-free in 1991, lit up again in 1994, and closed in 1999.

I remember hearing about casinos installing ventilation systems that push out air at the floor and then pull it out near the ceiling, thereby having an upwards air flow and causing the smoke to rise. That was 20 years ago or more. The only casino in Las Vegas that seems to do this is Circa, if the Facebook post in the link is correct.

In 2020 Las Vegas Advisor polled its readers about whether smoking should be banned in casinos. If you add the percentages from all of the response choices that favored a ban, 72% of respondents favored a ban.

In the notes on the page, LVA says that the poll "garnered some interest from the industry." It didn't lead to any sweeping changes, though.

I found this quote on the front page of casinoair.com, a company that makes HVAC filtering devices: "Cigarette smoke drives away non-smoking customers, affects staff health and retention, and creates an uncomfortable environment."

I'm surprised that you find the smoke in Las Vegas casinos better than that in Atlantic City. I thought that having 3/4 of the floor non-smoking would result in less smoky conditions than the limited non-smoking sections most Las Vegas casinos have.

There are some encouraging signs.

Park MGM has been completely smoke-free since September 2020 and, according to this thread on reddit, enforces the ban. I've seen players asked to stop smoking or move when they've lit up in the non-smoking section of Gold Coast, which has (or had, at least) many high-paying video poker machines. The Plaza downtown promotes the smoke-free gaming area it opened in 2023. In a few days, the Palms will open an enclosed non-smoking area with over 200 (it's a start) games.

Changing the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act is one tactic. Challenging it is another.

Lawrence Justin Mills is a documentary filmmaker. He also has a JD.

He has challenged the constitutionality of the casino carve-out in Nevada's Clean Indoor Air Act in court. The Act protected the general public from secondhand smoke and then specifically removes that protection from casino patrons, casino employees, and anyone who sets foot in a casino. In his argument, he asks what legitimate government interest is served by taking that protection away from those people. He says that the legal foundation for the exemptions has "never been stronger than 'casinos would prefer it this way'".

The case in Nevada is pending. A similar case in New Jersey is moving forward.

Sometimes I wonder whether casinos think the smoking issue will just go away on its own. Fewer and fewer adults smoke. Teen cigarette smoking is at historic lows. Some countries are even banning the sale of tobacco products to those born after a certain year.

The old smokers die off. There aren't any younger smokers to replace them. Problem solved.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

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Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.

Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison.