Anti-Tobacco Group Tells Nevada Regulators Casino Smoking Encourages Irresponsible Gambling

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) sent an open letter to the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday, calling for the end of smoking in Nevada casinos.

ANR framed the issue as a part of Responsible Gaming Education Month, which is designated each September as 30 days in which the gaming industry promotes safe gambling and resources to help battle gambling addiction. 

Groups Cite Links Between Smoking, Problem Gambling

There have been studies that link smoking and problem gambling. In 2022, the National Council on Problem Gaming (NCPG) sent a letter to New Jersey lawmakers highlighting the issue.

BQ “Research shows a direct connection between gambling severity and both smoking frequency and nicotine dependency,” the NCPG wrote in that letter. “Given this association between smoking and problem gambling, NCPG believes that making casinos smoke-free is likely to reduce the incidence of problem gambling and improve public health.”

Thursday’s letter from ANR spoke to those same concerns, linking the potentially addictive activities and arguing that the two can feed on each other.

“While we applaud [the gaming industry’s] commitment to responsible gaming, a major blind spot remains because too many casinos continue to allow indoor smoking at their properties,” ANR wrote in its letter. “Allowing smoking on gaming floors not only poses significant health risks to workers and patrons alike, it also undermines responsible gaming by encouraging addictive behavior as well as prolonged gambling sessions without taking breaks.”

The letter comes at a time when efforts to end smoking in casinos have been gaining momentum – and have received significant pushback – across the country.

Could Atlantic City’s Smoking Fight Come to Las Vegas?

This has most visibly taken place in New Jersey, where groups of Atlantic City casino workers have sued the state in an effort to close a loophole in the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act that allows smoking on casino floors while banning it in most other indoor public spaces. 

A judge dismissed that lawsuit earlier this month, prompting workers to request an emergency injunction from the New Jersey Supreme Court that would temporarily halt smoking in casinos while appears were heard. The state’s Supreme Court denied this request, though the case remains in the appeal process.

Nevada’s laws work similarly to New Jersey’s in this regard. The state’s 2006 Clean Indoor Air Act bans indoor smoking in nearly all public spaces, but casinos and other gaming facilities are exempted from the rule.

Casino industry executives and some workers have argued that bans on smoking would significantly reduce revenues at casinos, endangering jobs and tax contributions. However, proponents of smoke-free casinos have pointed to studies showing that in recent years, casinos that have eliminated smoking have seen no ill effects. 

Nevada Gaming Commission chair Jennifer Togliatti, whom the ANR letter was addressed to, released a statement in response saying she could not comment on the topic “pursuant to Nevada’s open meeting laws.”

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights was founded in 1976 as a non-profit lobbying group focused on combating the tobacco industry and protecting nonsmokers from health problems related to issues such as secondhand smoke. 

(Image: Wayne Parry / AP)