Laws in Pennsylvania that seeks to shut the indoor smoking loophole afforded to casinos and sure different companies handed a Home committee final November. 5 months later, the measure nonetheless hasn’t been acted on by the complete Home of Representatives.
Efforts to extinguish on line casino smoking in Pennsylvania proceed to pull slowly within the Harrisburg State Capitol. The lawmaker main the push says there isn’t but sufficient assist for the measure to clear the state Home of Representatives. (Picture: iStock)
The Pennsylvania Well being Committee signed off on Home Invoice 1657 on November 15. Referred to as the Defending Employees From Secondhand Smoke Act, the statute was authored by state Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), a longtime advocate of banning indoor tobacco use to guard worker well being.
Frankel’s HB 1657 was initially scheduled for overview within the Home chamber this week, however the merchandise was pulled from the agenda after the lawmaker stated extra time was wanted to rally up assist. Legislative efforts to extinguish on line casino smoking inside Atlantic Metropolis casinos appear unlikely anytime quickly, although a lawsuit filed this month seeks to ban tobacco use on the 9 New Jersey casinos by means of a court docket order.
Pennsylvania lawmakers representing casinos in Philadelphia are involved {that a} smoking ban would lead to some gamblers taking their enterprise an hour east to Atlantic Metropolis.
Smoking Stalemate
Pennsylvania’s Clear Indoor Air Act handed in 2008 offered an exception for casinos that enables brick-and-mortar companies to allocate as much as 25% of their gaming ground house for tobacco use. Of the 17 casinos within the commonwealth, solely two, Parx On line casino in Bensalem and Parx On line casino Shippensburg, don’t make the most of the smoking allowance.
Nevertheless, Parx is the richest on line casino of the bunch. The on line casino situated simply north of Philadelphia received $588.2 million final yr to simply greatest runner-up Wind Creek Bethlehem at $526.3 million. Frankel causes that Parx’s efficiency exhibits smoking bans are good — not unhealthy — for gaming companies.
It’s preposterous to argue that smoking bans are unhealthy for enterprise when Pennsylvania’s most profitable on line casino is voluntarily smoke-free,” Frankel stated final fall after his invoice cleared the Well being Committee.
“A rising physique of proof means that smoke-free environments entice extra clients, not fewer,” Frankel added. “Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to decide on between their jobs and their well being. This laws is not only good for well being — it’s additionally good for enterprise.”
Trade Claims
Industrial gaming lobbyists proceed to inform lawmakers that smoking bans damage enterprise. In Atlantic Metropolis, the On line casino Affiliation of New Jersey commissioned a examine that concluded a smoking ban would cut back annual gaming revenues by as a lot as 25%, crucial revenue that may result in vital layoffs and presumably on line casino closures.
In Pennsylvania, some analysts imagine Parx has turn into the richest on line casino as a result of it attracts a lot of the nonsmoking crowd. If a smoking ban was instituted statewide, that demographic could be divvied up among the many Philly casinos, together with Stay!, Harrah’s, Rivers, and Valley Forge. People who smoke would journey to Atlantic Metropolis and the ban would subsequently lead to a web loss.
Based on the Pennsylvania Gaming Management Board, state casinos make use of about 14,800 folks at their brick-and-mortar properties. On line casino taxes assist an array of packages, together with property tax reductions, agricultural assist, the horse racing trade, group grants, and financial growth.
