On the Las Vegas Strip, every vice seems to have been embraced.
Gambling is, of course, celebrated, while the Strip has become one of the culinary centers of the world. Visitors can dine on meals created by the most celebrated chefs and/or eat the most indulgent fast food.
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You can’t legally hire a prostitute on the Las Vegas Strip, but rolling billboards on trucks advertise “escorts.” That’s a parsing of words, but even if you don’t want to skirt the laws, there’s no shortage of risqué shows on the Strip.
Marijuana has been legalized in Nevada and dispensaries are everywhere (albeit none technically on the Strip). You can legally smoke marijuana only in private residences and in the consumption lounges being built.
That limit, as you might imagine, has not stopped people from smoking pot in public, and the police won’t stop someone just for doing so. Call that an offshoot of Las Vegas being one of the few places on Earth that still embraces smoking.
Casinos, at least the ones in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, operate under an exception to the smoking rules that govern bars and restaurants. They may have nonsmoking areas, but aside from MGM Resorts International’s MGM Park (MGM) , all Las Vegas Strip casinos allow smoking.
Caesars Entertainment, MGM, Wynn and other operators, however, have quietly made another major smoking change.
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It’s legal to smoke and (sometimes) vape in Las Vegas Strip casinos.
Image source: Sandy Huffaker/Corbis via Getty Images
Smoking remains controversial on the Las Vegas Strip
Smoking and gambling seem to go together, and the major Las Vegas Strip operators have strongly resisted efforts to ban smoking in their casinos.
At the same time a poll released in April showed that the majority of Nevadans support a smoking ban for casinos.
“By a nearly 20-point margin, Nevada voters support making all workplaces in Nevada, including casinos, 100% smoke-free indoors – even after hearing an onslaught of expected opposition arguments,” according to the study, released by the Nevada Tobacco Control & Smoke-Free Coalition.
“A clear majority – 58% – of Nevada voters support a potential law, while just 39% of Nevada voters are opposed to such a law.”
The major casino operators have all fought a smoking ban because they say it will hurt revenue. And that, they argue, would cost people their jobs.
Multiple reports, however, show that even with improved ventilation and air filtration systems, secondhand smoke puts workers in danger.
“As the ventilation experts have repeatedly said, there is no ventilation system that can protect worker and guest health in casinos,” Cynthia Hallett, chief executive of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, says.
Las Vegas Strip resorts make a key smoking move
While smoking remains legal and perhaps encouraged in Strip casinos, Las Vegas’s largest casino operators have phased out smoking rooms in their hotels.
MGM has not offered smoking rooms for more than a decade while Caesars began phasing them out during Covid, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
To book one of the remaining smoking rooms at a Caesars property, aside from Caesars Palace, guests must call. They can no longer book them online.
“The online reservation systems for Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, Sahara, Circus Circus, and The Strat do not offer smoking rooms,” the newspaper reported.
“As with all things in Las Vegas, nothing is entirely out of the question if one knows who and how to ask. All of these casino properties have smoking rooms on designated floors throughout their hotels.”
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While these companies fight for casino smoking, they want to limit it in their hotel rooms for cost reasons. It’s more expensive to clean a room where someone smokes, and nonsmokers generally don’t want to book those rooms.
Keeping smoking legal in the casino benefits the company while limiting it in their hotel rooms does the same. Worker safety does not appear to be a major factor in either situation.
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