Casino owners in Nevada have good reason to worry that smoking some day will be banned.
Editorial: A smoking ban is inevitable for Nevada's gaming industry
Events of recent years -- including a ban in New Jersey casinos that, according to owners, has been disastrous -- have made an eventual ban in Nevada inevitable. The question no longer is whether it will happen but when.
It is critical that casino owners avoid the trap that the state's mini-markets and taverns fell into a few years ago, when they faced a ballot question pushed by health-related organizations that would bar smoking in their establishments while ignoring the state's large casinos (except in their restaurants).
The tavern owners used a misleading campaign that failed to convince voters that a competing initiative was a better deal and had the ban forced on them.
It's hard to know what the real impact of that measure has been. Some sports bar owners have said that it essentially destroyed their businesses. Smokers didn't come in any more when they couldn't smoke in their favorite tavern, they said, but the non-smokers didn't come in either.
Yet the smoking ban went into effect at the same time as the economic downturn hit Nevada full force. No business in the state that relies heavily on gambling is doing well right now, not taverns, not mini-markets and not the large casinos either. That's one reason behind the state's steep decline in tax revenue.
So, until the recession ends in Nevada, where unemployment climbed again last month, we won't know whether it was the smoking ban or economic woes that kept people from spending. (New Jersey's woes likewise could just as easily be blamed on the recession, along with the spread of gaming to Pennsylvania and other states.)
But, if it's true, as casino owners say, that banning smoking would be bad for business, it's equally true that allowing smoking is bad for business.
How?
» Certainly there are potential customers who stay away from casinos and their restaurants because they don't like breathing second-hand smoke, even if they're just passing through on the way to dinner.
» The smoke also has an economic impact: Smoke is bad for the electronics that today are the heart of every casino, shortening the life of equipment. It seeps into carpets, furniture, ceilings, wall coverings and other fixtures, increasing cleaning costs and speeding up deterioration.
» Most important, however, that smoke is bad for the casino's employees, who are forced to breathe other people's smoke throughout the work shift. Yes, ventilation systems are getting better, but they are not good enough yet, and may never be. That raises health-care costs and eventually is going to result in a lawsuit that costs the casino a lot of money.
If the Legislature doesn't end smoking in the casinos -- which it probably won't -- either the voters or a judge one of these days will.
Unable to stop the inevitable, casino owners should be ready for the worst.
