Smoking is allowed on Las Vegas casino floors, but not in most other resort areas like corridors, hotel rooms (with few exceptions), convention areas, and restaurants.
There is only one non-smoking casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
Most sportsbooks and all poker rooms in Las Vegas are non-smoking.
Smoking is permitted in certain areas of bars and lounges where minors are not allowed, and some pools have designated smoking areas.
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A History of Non-Smoking Casinos
Anti-smoking advocacy groups have been fighting smoking in casinos for as long as we can remember. Several states, such as Illinois, Ohio, Delaware, New York, and Maryland, do not allow smoking at their casinos, while states like Pennsylvania have designated smoking areas. There are also several examples of tribal casinos that do not allow smoking.
Why Casinos Allow Smoking
The reason for not banning smoking at Las Vegas casinos largely has to do with the economy.
States that have banned smoking in the past saw double-digit casino revenue declines, so elected officials in Nevada have been hesitant to ban smoking here.
Instead, they have passed laws, including The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, prohibiting smoking cigarettes and cigars virtually everywhere indoors, except within casinos or bars where minors are not permitted.
In the casinos’ defense, they have invested significantly in ventilation systems that remove smoke.
Aria, for example, has air units between the players and the dealer at each table game that push air up to the sky, making dealers less susceptible to secondhand smoke.
How COVID-19 Affected Non-Smoking Efforts
During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-smoking groups successfully banned and limited smoking temporarily but have not had success in banning smoking permanently.
However, following COVID-19, MGM Resorts took the bold step of making Park MGM the first permanent non-smoking casino on The Strip (oddly, you have to look hard to find the non-smoking notice on the casino’s website).
We think MGM took this step because they operate so many Strip properties, so it was worth ‘testing’ whether financial results could actually benefit from having one property that could cater to customers where smoking was a major deterrent.
It remains the only non-smoking Strip casino to this date.
The Future of Non-Smoking Casinos
Caesars Entertainment, the other major Strip casino behemoth, has yet to make any of its Strip casinos smoke-free.
Caesars and a few other companies, including Boyd Gaming, have seen shareholders vote down attempts by anti-smoking advocacy groups to force them to study the impact of making their casinos smoke-free.
We would not be surprised if Caesars and other casino companies were closely studying Park MGM’s experience to see if it makes sense to ‘test’ non-smoking at one of their Strip casinos.
Also, check out our article for more information about smoking and consuming cannabis in Las Vegas.
