Pennsylvania casinos can permit cigarette smoking on sections of their gaming flooring. However efforts in Harrisburg are as soon as once more underway to extinguish the gaming exemption from the state’s Clear Indoor Air Act.
A gambler puffs on a cigarette. Pennsylvania casinos are going through lawmaking efforts in Harrisburg to drive their patrons who want to smoke outdoors. (Picture: Shutterstock)
Pennsylvania handed its Clear Indoor Air Act in 2008. The regulation prohibits indoor smoking in public locations and workplaces. However the statute offers exemptions for casinos, cigar lounges, non-public golf equipment, and watering holes that generate the majority of their income from alcohol gross sales.
For casinos, Pennsylvania’s Clear Indoor Air Act permits every licensed facility to designate as much as 50% of its gaming flooring for cigarette smoking. However as cigarette use continues to say no within the commonwealth — about 14% of grownup Pennsylvanians as we speak reporting that they smoke tobacco — some state lawmakers imagine it’s time to finish the smoking loopholes.
State Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny County) plans to quickly reintroduce a statute to ban smoking inside Pennsylvania casinos. He tried final yr with Home Invoice 2466, however the measure stalled within the Home Well being Committee.
Frankel’s legislative district is the place many staff and visitors of Rivers On line casino Pittsburgh stay. The on line casino permits indoor smoking in designated sections. The on line casino says it not too long ago upgraded its HVAC system with an “indoor air high quality purification system” that eradicates contaminated particles and disinfects the air.
Burning Concern
Frankel mentioned in a memorandum to his legislative colleagues that smoking charges have declined since 2008, when the Clear Indoor Air Act was signed into regulation by Gov. Ed Rendell (D).
Whereas the variety of people who smoke has sunk, we’ve additionally concentrated the well being dangers of secondhand smoke to some remaining, unprotected workplaces. Casinos, non-public golf equipment, and a few ingesting institutions expose their employees to untenable well being dangers by making the most of loopholes in our Clear Indoor Air Act,” Frankel wrote.
“Pennsylvanians mustn’t have to decide on between their jobs and their well being,” he continued.
Frankel pointed to analysis that discovered smoke-free environments appeal to extra clients — not fewer. He additionally cited Pennsylvania on line casino revenues that fared properly even when the state briefly prohibited indoor smoking amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frankel says his forthcoming invoice will search to shut a lot of the Clear Indoor Air Act loopholes. His laws can even develop on the definition of digital cigarettes and vapes to ban these gadgets from getting used indoors.
State Chief Smoke-Free
Pennsylvania overtook New Jersey final yr to develop into the nation’s second-richest gaming state behind Nevada. Pennsylvania’s prime on line casino when it comes to 2022 gaming income was Parx, north of Philadelphia in Bensalem.
Parx final yr generated brick-and-mortar gross gaming income (GGR) of $637.5 million. That topped the checklist of the state’s 16 land-based casinos.
Parx determined amid the pandemic to completely ban indoor smoking from its total gaming flooring. Eric Hausler, president and CEO of Greenwood Racing Inc., the father or mother group of Parx, says the choice was in the most effective curiosity of staff and reduces the “put on and tear” on the property.
But it surely’s value noting that whereas retail slot income climbed 4.5% final yr statewide, Parx terminals noticed their win decline by 3.8%. Parx tables additionally received 1.4% fewer {dollars} year-over-year, whereas desk income climbed greater than 7% statewide.
Different Pennsylvania casinos which have tried going smoke-free have since reversed course. Rivers On line casino Philadelphia and Mount Ethereal On line casino each not too long ago introduced again indoor smoking after asserting they had been going smoke-free.
