Pennsylvania on line casino smoking is allowed in designated areas, however some state Democrats wish to extinguish the gaming exemption from the state’s Clear Indoor Air Act.
Anti-smoking advocates marketing campaign for smoke-free casinos in Las Vegas in 2016. A invoice to ban Pennsylvania on line casino smoking handed a state Home committee this week in Harrisburg. (Picture: Las Vegas Evaluate-Journal)
The Pennsylvania Home Well being Committee yesterday made historical past by advancing a measure that seeks to shut the indoor smoking loophole that was afforded to casinos within the 2008 invoice. It marked the primary time {that a} invoice to amend the indoor on line casino smoking regulation has superior out of a committee.
The Home Well being Committee is chaired by Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), who for a second straight 12 months has launched a statute to make the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos go smoke-free. Frankel’s laws — Home Invoice 1657 — would additionally take away indoor smoking privileges for personal golf equipment and bars the place alcohol accounts for the majority of the income.
With committee approval of my invoice at this time, we took a key step ahead within the effort to guard Pennsylvania employees in casinos, bars, and golf equipment from secondhand smoke. It’s gone time we stopped forcing workers to decide on between their jobs and their well being,” Frankel stated.
With the Home Well being Committee’s blessing, Frankel’s invoice strikes to the complete Home of Representatives the place it would within the coming weeks obtain full consideration.
Occasion Divide
The Home Well being Committee vote on Frankel’s smoking invoice was break up amongst get together strains. The committee’s 14 Democrats all voted in favor of HB 1657. The committee’s 10 Republicans voted towards it.
Republicans are adhering to the casinos’ argument {that a} smoking ban would negatively affect gaming income and lead to lowered tax income. The gaming trade says hundreds of jobs could be at stake, as gamers wishing to smoke might go to neighboring Atlantic Metropolis or West Virginia the place indoor smoking stays.
Casinos in Delaware, Maryland, and New York — Pennsylvania’s different border states — require their casinos to be smoke-free.
Of the 17 casinos in Pennsylvania, all however two have designated smoking areas on their gaming flooring. The exceptions are Parx On line casino north of Philadelphia in Bensalem and Parx On line casino Shippensburg, its sister satellite tv for pc on line casino.
Anti-smoking advocates say smoking bans don’t damage gaming. Fairly the opposite, they are saying, and so they level to the truth that Parx On line casino has continued to guide the state gaming trade when it comes to brick-and-mortar income even after going smoke-free.
A 2022 research by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming, a on line casino consultancy, discovered that smoking bans would not have hostile results on gaming play.
“Knowledge from a number of jurisdictions clearly signifies that banning smoking not causes a dramatic drop in gaming income,” the C3 Gaming research summarized. “The truth is, non-smoking properties seem like performing higher than their counterparts that proceed to permit smoking.”
Odds Stay Lengthy
On line casino employees within the grassroots coalition CEASE — On line casino Workers Towards Smoking Results — celebrated the historic committee passage of a invoice to ban indoor on line casino smoking.
It is a nice day in our combat for a more healthy office and we gained’t cease combating for this laws till we will lastly breathe smoke-free air at work. We urge lawmakers to move this invoice relating to the Home ground as a result of nobody must be compelled to decide on between their well being and a paycheck,” commented Jen Rubolino, a desk video games vendor at Rivers On line casino Pittsburgh and a co-leader of CEASE Pennsylvania.
The chances of Frankel’s invoice passing and changing into regulation, nonetheless, presumably stay lengthy. The Democrats maintain the narrowest of majorities within the Home with 102 of the 203 chamber seats. Republicans management the state Senate with 28 of the 50 seats.
