Smokers may be out of luck at casinos

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HARRISBURG, Pa. --

Anti-smoking forces that want Pennsylvania casinos to be smoke-free are on the verge of getting a big lift from an unexpected source -- casinos in Atlantic City.

Earlier this month, the city council in Atlantic City gave unanimous, preliminary approval to a measure that would prohibit smoking on all casino floors for the first time since the popular shoreline resort legalized gambling in the late 1970s.

A final vote could come as early as Wednesday on the smoke-free legislation, which is strongly supported by Atlantic City Mayor Scott Evans.

But the ban on smoking in Atlantic City gambling parlors wouldn't take effect until Oct. 15 to give the casinos time to add new interior smoking lounges where there would be no slot machines or table games. A smoker who felt the need to light up would have to leave the slot machines or table games and go into one of the special smoking lounges.

A close observer of the Atlantic City casino scene, Joseph Weinert, of Spectrum Gaming Observer, said the move for smoke-free casinos isn't a complete surprise, because both state and local lawmakers have been talking about it for a while.

But obviously, he added, "It is a significant development."

The New Jersey legislature enacted a ban on workplace smoking in the Garden State in April 2007, but allowed a partial exception for casinos. As of now, smoking is still permitted on 25 percent of a gaming floor.

Weinert also has been keeping on eye on Pennsylvania's young but growing casino industry, which already has caused a drop in gaming revenue in New Jersey.

If Atlantic City casinos have to ban smoking completely, he said, "I would think that would make it easier for Pennsylvania to include casinos in a total ban on smoking in workplaces in Pennsylvania."

That is certainly what Diane Phillips, of the American Cancer Society, is hoping for when a six-member House-Senate conference committee meets on April 29 in Harrisburg.

Their goal is to enact a bill to ban smoking in workplaces and public places, but there is still wide disagreement on whether to totally ban smoking in places such as bars, taverns, restaurants, cigar bars, private fraternal clubs and casinos.

Phillips said that what Atlantic City does "should affect what happens in the Pennsylvania Legislature. The Atlantic city council is looking at the fact that it's more important to protect the health of casino patrons and employees than it is to protect the casinos' bottom line."

State Democratic Rep. Michael Gerber, who is strongly anti-smoking, said he's hoping the Atlantic City action does influence the Legislature.

He said Pennsylvania casinos claim that if the legislature bans all smoking in casinos, "it would put them at a competitive disadvantage with other states, especially New Jersey."

But with Atlantic City casinos smoke-free, "It takes away the argument that a smoking ban in Pennsylvania will cause gamblers to go to Atlantic City," Gerber said

Not surprisingly, casino forces don't see it that way.

"What happens in Atlantic City changes nothing," said David LaTorre, a spokesman for The Meadows, a Washington County casino and harness track. "Atlantic City isn't our competition."

Meadows officials worry about the two casinos in northern West Virginia, which now have table games and allow smoking. Pennsylvania casinos don't have table games.

From 1996 until June, when The Meadows opened its temporary slots casino, Meadows officials watched customers drive past their facility on their way to the West Virginia casinos, and they fear the same thing would recur if the state forces them to ban smoking on the gaming floor.

"Our competition sits just half an hour away," LaTorre said. "West Virginia has legalized table games and allows their casinos to set their own smoking policies."

Bureau Chief Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes(at)post-gazette.com

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)