SMOKING
AND
GAMBLING Why Smoking is Increasingly Being Banned in Casinos
and
Other Places Where Gambling is Permitted
Smoking should be banned -- and is increasingly being banned --
in casinos and other places where gambling is permitted, for exactly
the
same reasons it is being banned in workplaces, restaurants and bars:
* According to many governmental bodies and major national
organizations, secondhand tobacco smoke kills more than 50,000
Americans each year, cripples or disables hundreds of thousands, and
unnecessarily imposes billions of dollars in health care and other
related costs on the American economy -- most of which are paid by
nonsmokers in the form of higher taxes (for Medicare, Medicaid, etc.)
as well as grossly inflated health insurance premiums. Indeed,
every
scientific or medical body which has studied the issue, both here and
abroad, has concluded that secondhand tobacco smoke kills nonsmokers
who inhale it.
* Many governmental bodies and scientific or medical organizations have
concluded that having separate no-smoking rooms does not
reduce the level of exposure to a safe non-lethal level. As the
U.S.
Surgeon General has warned, there is no safe lower level of exposure to
the dozens of known human carcinogens in secondhand tobacco smoke, any
more than there is a safe lower level of exposure to other known
carcinogens such as asbestos, benzene, or Polonium 210.
* Ventilation provides even less protection, since no building
ventilation system can filter out the many deadly gases in tobacco
smoke, nor many of the tiny particles which are especially dangerous
because they tend to lodge in the lungs. It's often been said
that if
you can smell any tobacco smoke, it could kill you, and there may be
enough of it to trigger a fatal heart attack or cause cancer even if
you cannot smell it.
* Separate smoking (and no-smoking) rooms in casinos and other places
where gambling
is permitted also are not a viable or fair solution since, in addition
to
the gamblers, the dealers, waiters, and other employees who work in
such rooms are subjected to levels of tobacco smoke far higher than in
most casinos where smoking is permitted, since all of the smokers are
concentrated into a small area with a very limited volume of air.
* Moreover, by law, they can no more
voluntarily consent to assume the risk of working where smoke is in the
air than they can agree to work if asbestos, Polonium 210, etc. were in
the air.
* Although the hospitality industry has argued that smoking bans would
(or have) caused financial ruin and dramatic losses in tax revenue --
just as they argued regarding bans on smoking in restaurants and then
in bars
-- there have now been many scientifically controlled and valid studies
showing that this is not true, especially in the long run after the
initial disgruntlement wears away. This is not at all
surprising
since:
A. The overwhelming percentage of potential customers are nonsmokers
whose strong dislike of tobacco smoke has led to smoking bans in so
many areas.
B. Indeed, the percentage of smokers among the affluent -- those able
to gamble the most -- is much lower than among the general population.
C. Smokers can gamble for a hour or two and then step outside for a
smoke, but nonsmokers cannot hold their breath for an hour or two while
gambling.
D. Smokers have adjusted to bans on smoking for long periods of time
(e.g., on airplanes and in many workplaces), as well as in areas in
which smoking was thought to be intimately related to the activity
going on (e.g., eating in restaurants or drinking in bars).
Smokers
are
making such adjustments for gambling.
* Smoking in now prohibited in the great majority of bingo parlors, and
in
more than one third of casinos and race tracks in states where they are
permitted.
Despite this, casinos, race tracks, and bingo parlors remain very
profitable.
* Even if a smoking ban did impose a temporary financial burden
on
some gambling establishments, this is true of many if not most measures
designed to protect the public health, and we enact such measures
because lives and health should come before profits. Many safety
and
health rules imposed on businesses (e.g., rubber gloves to protect
against deaths from AIDS, sprinkler systems, additional record keeping
for hospitals, etc.) cause some financial harm, but the public insists
on such rules to protect public health, to reduce unnecessary health
care
costs, and for reasons of compassion.
* Voters are increasingly demanding protection from secondhand tobacco
smoke, just as most now enjoy protection from smoke when they fly,
shop, go to restaurants and bars, etc.
Below are some links to additional information which readers might find
helpful.
Action on Smoking and Health
(ASH)
701 4th St. NW / Washington, DC
20001 / (202) 659-4310
A national nonprofit, scientific and educational organization founded
in 1967.
All donations are fully tax deductible.
