After a few days of respite in Las Vegas, I unpacked my bag to the overwhelming stench of smoke.  It seemed a bit worse this time around, although perhaps the dry and dusty desert air simply doubled the impact on my typically healthy nonsmoker lungs.  Now I have a seemingly endless “Vegas cough” that I can’t seem to shake….

The issue of smoking in casinos is nothing new, but as the Chicago Sun-Time reports in a recent article, players and dealers are split on a proposed Atlantic City smoking ban.  The State of New Jersey actually banned smoking in all public venues two years ago.  The only exception to the ban?  Casinos.  But the debate raises a questions of who has more rights, the casino workers/nonsmokers or the smoking patrons.  Despite existing regulations which limit smoking to no more than 25 percent of the casino floor, dealers such as Kam Wong are still paying the price.  Wong, a nonsmoker, was recently awarded damages for contracting lung cancer on the job.

In June of last year, the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) held it’s Committee on Casinos in Las Vegas.  Ironically, no legislative representatives from Nevada were present.  Testimony from NCLGS minutes addressed concerns ranging from decreased revenues (if smoking were banned) to worker health, concluding that:

“…studies show that secondhand smoke affects casino workers and leads to fatal health problems.  [Two] recent reports from the World Health Organization and the US Surgeon General stated the only way to effectively protect against secondhand smoke is to ban smoking in public places.  [The] reports also said smoke-free policies and regulation will not have a negative impact on the industry.”

Although the good people who make Febreze do their part with the smell, I personally would love to see the casinos embrace the smoking ban while allowing smokers to seek refuge outdoors or in designated areas.  Casino employees have it hard enough without feeling like they are betting their life at “the office”.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under General Thoughts, Human Capital/Human Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.