Nevada voters could outlaw casino smoking

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By JOHN KOOPMAN
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The smell hits you as soon as you open the door to a casino: cigarette smoke. It's a stale, dry scent that clings to the carpet, walls, slot machines and gamblers. It's slight enough to go unnoticed by people who work and play in Nevada's casinos, but it's painfully obvious to anyone coming from a state with strong anti-smoking laws, like Nevada's neighbor to the west.

It's a signature odor in one of the few places you can still light up in peace. It's one of the attractions of Nevada _ you can do things there that are prohibited or tightly controlled in other states, such as gamble, patronize a prostitute or puff on a cigar.

Much of that smoking could be extinguished soon, though. An initiative on Tuesday's ballot would ban smoking in most indoor public areas of the state _ including common areas, bars and restaurants in casinos.

"I think it would be a good thing," Brian Hendricks, a 42-year-old laid-off San Franciscan, said as he puffed on a Marlboro in a hallway of the Silver Legacy casino. "I always feel guilty when I'm smoking and I see a waitress who's seven months pregnant. I put it out, but I do like to be able to smoke whenever I want. It's not like this in California."

The measure, called Question 5 on the ballot, is competing with another, less-restrictive anti-smoking ordinance _ called Question 4 _ that would ban smoking in many public buildings but exempt all areas within the walls of casinos.

Gambling is still king in Nevada, and neither measure would affect smoking on casino floors, where high-rollers from Los Angeles shoot craps and tourists from Iowa feed slots. Strip clubs and brothels also would be exempt.

The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and the Cancer Society back the tougher Question 5, and the casino industry backs Question 4.

Question 4 would ban smoking on all school grounds, government buildings, day-care centers with fewer than 13 children, video arcades and restaurants with patrons under 21.

Question 5 additionally would ban smoking at all day care centers, shopping malls, the slot-machine sections of grocery and convenience stores, restaurants and bars that prepare food.

The measure that passes with the most votes becomes law in Nevada.

Polls have shown support for both measures, but it's unclear which one is the clear leader. Different polls have shown both of the measures winning. There is, inevitably, some confusion over which measure is better and what either will do if made into law.

"Nevada is the smokiest state in the country," said Buffy Martin, government relations director for the American Cancer Society and spokesperson for Question 5. "You can smoke on a school bus and in elevators. In grocery stores. We smoke everywhere in this state, and we pay the price."

Martin said that Nevada has one of the highest rates of lung-cancer mortality in America and that it's time to join the rest of the country, at least on the issue of no-smoking areas.