In the battle against smoking in casinos, there is a new strategy: shareholder voting.
Boyd Gaming, Bally Entertainment and Caesar’s Entertainment shareholders will vote on multiple casino companies’ proposals to require them to study the costs of allowing indoor smoking as well as whether going non-smoking would save money.
Underwritten by Trinity Health, a nonprofit health care network and the National Non-Smokers’ Rights Foundation, which is headquartered in Livonia, Miss., but uses its status as shareholder to fight on various health issues even though it owns only small fraction of these companies. For instance, Trinity holds just 440 Bally shares or 0.001% of the company according to public records.
The three largest gaming companies have asked for their proxy materials not to contain any of the proposals. The SEC rejected the casino’s request and communicated the proposal and the rationale behind it to all shareholders.
Boyd Gaming will face Vote on smoke-free assessment at Thursday’s annual general meeting. May 16 is when Bally’s annual meeting takes place while Caesars has its own meeting slated for June.
These three firms run altogether 75 US casinos that permit indoor smoking where state laws allow it. About 14 states permit indoor smoking in commercial casinos.
States such as Nevada and New Jersey ban indoor smoking more broadly but make exceptions for casinos. Legislation banning indoor smoking in casinos is being considered in several states across America including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
C3 Gaming research indicates that non-smoking gambling halls can be more profitable than competitors that do not ban smoking.
Shareholders of this proposal argue that they should be aware that casinos pay higher insurance premiums because employees are smokers; they also spend more on maintenance due to smoke damage; and alienate clients who dislike tobacco products.
According to Boyd’s attorney letter many states that have banned indoor tobacco use have experienced adverse effects.They assert that choice should be left with hotels regionally, suggesting that if a ban is imposed by shareholders – which the company claims is the purpose of the mandatory review – it will lose business to other operators who accommodate smoking.
Jan Jones Blackhurst, a board member at Caesars revealed during her participation at the SBC North America Summit Virtual Gaming Conference. She feels that it should be up to the government whether or not there is a smoking ban in casinos. She did admit though that casinos would take such a financial hit from such a move.
“If you look across the country typically, when casinos ban smoking, revenue drops by 20 to 25 percent and that also creates a huge layoff factor and people start losing their jobs,” she said.
Reactions have been mixed among unions. While some fear job losses, like other employees exposed to second-hand smoke in casinos, the United Auto Workers Union are taking stricter measures against smoking inside these premises as they have more than 10k table game dealers nationwide.
this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Regardless of how many times one comes into contact with secondhand smoke (SHS), it remains safe but can only be adequately protected by 100% smoke-free indoor air environments.”
She said several common features of casinos such as separation between smoking and nonsmoking zones, cleaning the air and ventilating buildings do not work in preventing secondhand smoke.
Parx, the operator of casinos in Pennsylvania, has kept its Bensalem casino in North Philadelphia smoke-free during the pandemic unlike four other local casinos which allow indoor smoking. It says that its market share has not been affected.
“Financially speaking, we’ve lost some customers but we know that we’ve gained some also,” Oppenheimer stated on CNBC. “In terms of either way we don’t believe it’s having a major impact on us.”
Instead, the company relied on customer satisfaction scores and surveys that pointed to improved employee morale.
The first-ever casino resort to ban smoking indoors and even at the pool deck by MGM Resorts Opened in Las Vegas on the Strip is Park MGM. “We are here at Park MGM unafraid to be different; you may have noticed our focus is new and fresh,” declares a hotel statement located on its website. “Now this includes your breathing space too.”
For now though, Park MGM is an exception but advocates for smoke free hope it will become a norm soon enough.
