Las Vegas Strip casinos are cracking down on a popular vice

On the Las Vegas Strip, every vice seems to have been embraced.

Gambling is, of course, celebrated, while the Strip has become one of the culinary centers of the world. Visitors can dine at tables created by the most famous chefs and/or eat the most indulgent fast food.

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You can’t legally hire a prostitute on the Las Vegas Strip, but billboards on trucks advertise “escorts.” That’s an analysis of words, but even if you don’t want to skirt the laws, there’s no shortage of risqué shows on the Strip.

Marijuana has been legalized in Nevada and dispensaries are everywhere (though technically none on the Strip). You can legally smoke marijuana only in private homes and in under construction lounges.

That limit, as you can imagine, hasn’t stopped people from smoking pot in public, and the police aren’t going to stop someone just for doing so. Call it an offshoot of Las Vegas being one of the few places on Earth that still embraces smoking.

Casinos, at least those in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, operate under an exception to the smoking rules that govern bars and restaurants. They may have non-smoking areas, but apart from MGM Resorts International MGM Park (MGM) all casinos on the Las Vegas Strip allow smoking.

Caesars Entertainment, MGM, Wynn and other operators, however, have quietly made another major smoking shift.

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It is legal to smoke and (sometimes) vape in casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Image Source: Sandy Huffaker/Corbis via Getty Images

Smoking remains controversial on the Las Vegas Strip

Smoking and gambling seem to go hand in hand, and major operators on the Las Vegas Strip have staunchly resisted efforts to ban smoking in their casinos.

At the same time, a poll released in April showed that a majority of Nevadans support a smoking ban for casinos.

“By a nearly 20-point margin, Nevada voters support making all Nevada workplaces, including casinos, 100 percent smoke-free indoors — even after hearing a barrage of expected arguments from the opposition,” according to the study, published by Nevada Tobacco Control. & the Smoke Free Coalition.

“A clear majority — 58 percent — of Nevada voters support a potential law, while only 39 percent of Nevada voters oppose such a law.”

The big casino operators have all fought against the smoking ban because they say it will hurt revenue. And that, they argue, would cost people their jobs.

Several reports, however, show that even with improved ventilation and air filtration systems, secondhand smoke puts workers at risk.

“As ventilation experts have said repeatedly, there is no ventilation system that protects the health of casino workers and guests,” says Cynthia Hallett, executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

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Resorts on the Las Vegas Strip are making a key smoking move

While smoking remains legal and perhaps encouraged in Strip casinos, Las Vegas’ largest casino operators have phased out smoking rooms in their hotels.

MGM hasn’t offered smoking rooms in more than a decade, while Caesars began phasing them out during Covid, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

To reserve one of the remaining smoking rooms at a Caesars property other than Caesars Palace, guests must call. I can no longer book them online.

“Online reservation systems for Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, Sahara, Circus Circus and The Strat do not offer smoking rooms,” the newspaper reported.

“As with all things Las Vegas, nothing is completely out of the question if one knows who and how to ask. All of these casino properties have smoking rooms on designated floors in all of their hotels.”

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While these companies fight for casino smoking, they want to limit it in their hotel rooms for cost reasons. It’s more expensive to clean a room where someone smokes, and non-smokers generally don’t want to book those rooms.

Keeping smoking legal in casinos benefits the company, while limiting it in their hotel rooms does the same. Worker safety does not appear to be a major factor in either situation.

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