Add a casino smoking ban to the list of stuff I can’t believe we haven’t done already, right after self-serve gasoline. Seriously, it’s 2022 and for some reason, casinos have been able to avoid the indoor smoking bans that came for other hospitality industries decades ago. Time to close the loophole and save some lives.

If, in this day and age, with what we know about the deleterious effects of smoking on health you insist on continuing the practice, have at it. If you’re willing to pay $8 a pack to slowly char broil your lungs in a carcinogenic chemical soup, be my guest. But, your right to smoke ends the moment it reaches my lungs. Casino employees didn’t sign up for your heart and lung disease when they accepted employment at one of Atlantic City’s fine gambling palaces. Smoking should have been banned years ago, but there’s no time like the present.

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The reason smoking is still allowed in casinos is, of course, money. The casino operators think, and have had tailor-made reports written to prove, that smokers are worth more than non-smokers in terms of profit. Too which I reply, so what? Your right to squeeze every last dime out of a smoker’s 401K doesn’t supersede your responsibility to provide a safe workplace.

The casinos have lobbied heavily to have their smoking exception grandfathered in when bans applying to bars and restaurants have been in place, with no severe economic repercussions, for years. Pass the ban, save some lungs. People will still gamble, trust me.

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