Report: Smoking bans no longer a threat to casino revenue

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — For decades, it was accepted wisdom in the casino industry that eliminating smoking would automatically lead to revenue declines and customer losses. The report issued Friday by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming come as several states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, are considering banning smoking in casinos. “In fact, non-smoking properties appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.” The report looks at casinos’ performance in numerous states since the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, and finds that “those casinos that implemented smoking prohibitions did not experience any drop in revenues or lost market share to nearby casinos that continued to offer smoking environments.” The authors also interviewed tribal casino executives, who said profitability was starting to increase due to lower maintenance costs, adding that 157 tribes were able to end smoking in their casinos “without economic cost.” The authors also predicted that smokers will not abandon Atlantic City casinos in droves if New Jersey bans smoking there, noting that due to smoking bans in Connecticut and New York, and a smoke-free policy at Rivers casino Philadelphia, gamblers from New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania would have only four options that offered smoking. It also takes aim at a report commissioned in February by New Jersey’s casinos predicting massive revenue and job losses if a smoking ban were implemented. I’m enjoying having the entirely smoke-free Encore casino a half-hour away.” John Bucek of Chester, New York, visits Atlantic City six times a year and quickly grew to like the absence of smoking in casinos there during the first year and a half of the pandemic.