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
They can denormalize smoking all they want. They won't be getting our money!
This is the song we hear from all the fanatics, but it is a lie.
Want a bridge? I got a cheap one for ya! 
Sammy and Frank are gone. The last time I was there the families on expense accounts outnumbered the hardcore.
Amazing to me was a baccarat table, high stakes, and NO SMOKING!!!!!
Meanwhile, on the edges of town, rooms full of chain smokers tugging away at the quarter slots.
Siegfried and Roy are in a nonsmoke room, and they need trucks to haul away their money!
Changes.
I just watched a documentary on Las Vegas. They tried for awhile to make it Family Friendly. But, that did not work. Adults who went to Sin City did not want to skirt around baby carriages. So, Las Vegas went back to be the adult STRIP it always has been. Now, the health fanatics want to go in and take away an adult activity: smoking.
Smoking and drinking and playing the slots are for adults. I can't believe they are going to ruin the city over the smoking issue, when all the casinos have huge smoke eaters that take care of it all.
Enjoy your tobacco but understand that the majority defines the norm. If fewer people are smoking, people who cater to crowds will adjust. Change is constant
So it looks like the nazis at the state level are making their play. As Delare goes, so goes the nation?
Smokers both. Sammy died of throat cancer (surely a horrible death), and Frank died of a heart attack (but also had cancer, and had suffered multiple strokes).
Possibly the least surprising factoid in the article is the mention that casino patrons were twice as likely to smoke as the population as a whole. People who think they can beat the odds in one arena probably think they can beat the odds in others.
Don't smoke? Don't drink? Eat Fat? Crave Sugar? Got the munchies? Steak and Dairy products..BAD! Everything that's good, is bad for us?
No matter how healthy a life-style, people are gonna feel mighty stupid when they're in the hospital "dying from nothin"...sw
You can't talk sense to these people. I look at them and think "This is a Conservative? Go figure!"
No wonder our party is going to the dogs......
Sure, but later is better than sooner.
As a conservative, a Republican, and a North Carolinian, I am uncomfortable in the anti-smoking camp. And I do not relish the prospects of local, state, or Federal laws making unreasonable demands on private enterprise. Nor do I think I'm going to instantly contract lung cancer by entering a smoky bar.
OTOH, I can't understand how anyone can think it's a great idea to roll up dried leaves, set them on fire, and suck the smoke into their lungs. To the extent possible, I avoid such people, both as acquaintances and as employees.
Read this? If the casino's do not comply, they will be taken to court.
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