Posted on 09/24/2002 4:22:36 PM PDT by SheLion
LAS VEGAS - Perhaps the biggest threat to growth in the U.S. casino industry comes not from antigambling interests, but from health-conscious public officials.
A group that sets the country's indoor air-quality standards is under "enormous" pressure to make casinos and other hospitality venues smoke-free, an expert warned attendees at the Global Gaming Expo on Thursday.
"With the collapse of the tobacco industry, (?) the hospitality industry is next to come under attack," said Elia Sterling, president of Theodor Sterling Associates, an indoor air-quality firm based in Vancouver, B.C.
If the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE, were to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for smoke particles, casinos could lose billions in revenue, according to legislative analyst Wayne Mehl of the American Gaming Association.
Forty percent to 50 percent of casino gamblers are smokers, about double the percentage of the U.S. population as a whole, Mehl said. A 1993 gaming-industry study showed that Nevada casinos alone would have lost $1 billion in revenue if casinos were forced to go smoke-free.
"It's not just the loss of customers, but also the loss of gambling time - 12 percent less time for smokers. They would spend that time going out for a smoke," Mehl said.
Of course the casino industry is concerned about the effects of second-hand smoke on its employees, Mehl said, but Thursday's panel discussion was all about the bottom line.
The industry will get a glimpse of the possible future beginning Nov. 27, when the three Delaware racetracks become the first casino jurisdiction to go smoke-free as part of a broader state law.
"There's a lot of talk about how much (gaming-tax) revenue the state will lose, and not only that, but jobs, too," said Don Johnson, deputy director of the Delaware State Lottery, which controls the racetrack slot-machine operations.
Delaware officials have been in touch with counterparts in Australia, where every gaming establishment was required to provide a smoke-free gaming area by Sept. 1. Johnson said he was told that the Australian smoking ban caused a sharp decrease in casino revenue initially but that business is beginning to recover.
At issue for U.S. casinos is ASHRAE Standard 62-1999, which governs how casinos, restaurants, bars and lounges filter and dilute their air to control tobacco particles, tobacco odor and body odor.
"It's intended to accommodate smoking in buildings," Sterling said. "This ASHRAE standard is a practical standard and is working well in the field."
For example, he said, the lavish Bellagio casino hotel here "provides better air quality indoors than you'll find outdoors."
Special interests, however, are aggressively pushing for standards so tight they "would effectively ban smoking in the hospitality industry," Sterling said.
ASHRAE (which conveniently rhymes with ashtray) is a 108-year-old non-government trade group of indoor-air specialists whose standards governance has been taken over by public funding and public officials, Sterling said. Today, the group's standards committee is chaired by an official from the Environmental Protection Agency and has only two representatives from the hospitality industry, he said.
"They're in the process of adopting a zero-tolerance approach to tobacco smoke. One molecule of tobacco smoke is unacceptable," Sterling said. "The debate is clearly not about health as it is about social engineering to denormalize smoking."
Matthew Iandoli, a Washington-based lobbyist and lawyer, said the Hospitality Coalition on Indoor Air Quality is trying to pre-empt the proposed new rules by adopting its own guidelines for smoke and ventilation. The group's members include the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, which represents more than 14,000 Atlantic City casino workers, and the Nevada Resort Association, which represents the gaming industry here.
Iandoli warned that any action, or non-action, by the hospitality industry could expose it to substantial legal damages.
"Trial lawyers are trying to find that avenue, trying to find that chink in the armor where they can pursue those class-action lawsuits," he said. "If the ASHRAE standard goes forward, that will be the point at which the lawyers will try to show that the casino industry has harmed its employees."
From the casinos' point of view, Mehl said, the "ideal" solution to shielding employees and customers from smoke is a combination of effective ventilation and smoke-free areas.
To e-mail Joe Weinert at The Press:
JWeinert@pressofac.com
The SUV's slip through a loop-hole that is driving them crazy. Trying to close this loop-hole is the fight! The "state" cannot usurp federal regulations so they are trying other tactics! Don't be mislead by the rhetoric and stick with the facts. Don't try to put words in my mouth. My idea of being a conservative ALSO means that I DO NOT distort the facts! That is a LIBERAL tactic you are employing! That does NOT give you the right to discredit my conservatism. I did NOT advocate additional restrictions/taxes on SUV's. Read, think, post!
Perhaps you should reread the constitution!
To which you replied:
Perhaps you should reread the constitution!
Perhaps you should read the consitituion.
This was a sub-thread dealing with Adam Smith. By regulating traffic laws, one is regulating commerce and a proprietors conduct of business.
You are wrong on all counts. You have shown yourself unable to engage in a discussion without name-calling and verbal abuse. Bye!
You didn't even have to be a Border Patrol Agent like I am to tell that they were illegal. It was quite obvious. Many of the tourists around me commented on the illegals as well.
Unfortunately, the INS is not allowed to pick them up off the streets. Eventually, Las Vegas is going to have the same problems San Diego had before there was 2400 Border Patrol Agents to clean up the area. Vegas will have people doing drugs in the middle of the strip, in front of the hotels. Rapes and assaults will occurs on a nightly basis etc. Of course, I think the hotel owners in Vegas probably have a more inventive way of handling such problems than the Border Patrol:)
And what is wrong with "capitalism with regulation"?
Are you reading the same sentence the rest of us are?
This speaks of "powers" not "rights".
Sorry. I misquoted you on a previous quote by inserting the words of another in your place. The above is an example of the "crap" (I use a word from your post) you spew. BYE!
Please READ, THINK and then post. I addressed this issue in my very short two paragraph post!
Hey chickie... Bump for Free-Smoke-America... Funny what bandwagons folks get onto every so often. Don't people have anything better to do with their lives than run around trying to conform everybody else to some arbitrary "standard of living"? Geezus. Some people need to GET OVER THEMSELVES...
Ah, the essence of capitalism and conservatism. Those businesses are "voting with their feet", to use a phrase from a previous post by you. And we have regulated some industries to an economic advantage in order to keep them in the country. Is that good when it means we have to pay higher prices? Regulation can be either good or bad and sometimes both at the same time. I am not trying to discuss the merits but trying to keep on topic from a challenge by another poster to discuss property rights as it applies in the regulation of business.
I did read, I did think, and I did post.
This thread is SUPPOSED to be about property owners rights, not the powers of the government.
Does the government have the POWER to regulate what a property owner does?
To a certain degree when the health of the GENERAL PUBLIC will be affected by something the propert owner does.
Again, for the large portion of the GENERAL PUBLIC ETS is no more than an annoyance.
So where should the power of the government be allowed to regulate this?
Are we talking about mob rule democracy? If we are, that ain't right and you still show yourself not in conservative light.
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