[ Home ]

[ Slots News ]

Casinos Comply With PA Smoking Guidelines

The state of Pennsylvania just got a lot less friendly towards smokers. Effective Thursday, September 11th, cigarette smokers are now barred from lighting up in many public places. Restaurants and workplaces are among those types of indoor places that will be most affected by the ban, since they were the target of the anti-smoking legislation voted into effect by the state Legislature, but many other environments will also feel the changes – including casinos.

Casino operators argued against their inclusion in the Clean Indoor Air Act. They believed that the smoking ban would have an impact on their revenues, especially when it came to their slot machines. Slot machine income can account for seventy percent or more of a casino’s revenue, and it seems that many slots players are also smokers. At least seventy-five percent of the gambling floor of a state casino must be smoke-free, although designated smoking areas will be permitted. To ensure that gambling establishments have become compliant with the new regulations, they were all required to file revised gaming floor plans with the Office of Gaming Operations reflecting that an appropriate percentage of their floor space is smoke-free.

The state is willing to be flexible on the issue of smoking in casinos, however. If casinos find that their slot machines located in non-smoking areas are losing money compared to the slot games in areas where cigarettes are allowed, they may be able to expand the smoking-permitted section of their gaming floor to a bigger area that is in proportion to how much more income the “smoking” slots are making than those located in smoke-restricted areas.

Back to September 2008 Archive.