Mass. Senate casino bill would allow smoking despite 2004 law that banned it

Mass. Senate casino bill would allow smoking

BOSTON — Six years after Massachusetts passed a ban on smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants because of public health concerns, Senate leaders are backing a gambling bill that would allow smoking in new casinos proposed for the state.

The proposal is drawing criticism from antismoking advocates, who say the proposed legislation would put casino patrons and workers at a health risk, while also upending the ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces.

Under legislation briefly debated Wednesday, the state would license three casinos and allow smoking in up to 25 percent of their gaming areas. The bill also requires signs marking the smoking areas and “appropriate ventilation so as to minimize the effect of the smoke on the nondesignated areas.”

Advocates say banning smoking would drive gamblers to other states where casino smoking is allowed.

“The marketing study has shown without smoking, it would dramatically affect your revenues and the amount people play,” said a casino supporter, Sen. Steven Pangiatakos. The Lowell Democrat noted casinos in Connecticut allow smoking.

Sen. Richard Tisei of Wakefield said he supports allowing smoking sections in casinos. Tisei, the Republican leader in the Senate, said he had opposed the statewide workplace smoking ban.

“Anybody who’s ever been to a casino knows that smoking takes place in a casino,” said Tisei, a smoker. “If gambling’s a vice, smoking’s a vice, so why are you going to allow gambling but not smoking?”

Russet Morrow Breslau, executive director of the antismoking advocacy group Tobacco Free Mass, said Massachusetts could become the first state allowing casinos to offer smoking after passing a statewide ban.

“This is step backwards in terms of protecting the rights of patrons and workers,” she said. “Casino workers will be exposed for an entire shift to carcinogens.”

The Massachusetts law passed in 2004 made exceptions for private clubs and cigar bars.

Morrow Breslau said if casinos are allowed to offer smoking, they may even lose more customers than they gain because many people prefer nonsmoking environments.

Mark Hymovitz, the director of government relations and advocacy for the American Cancer Society, said smoking in casinos would force casino workers to choose “between their jobs and their health.”

Local businesses in communities with casinos also will face unfair competition if casinos can offer smoking, Hymovitz said.

“Allowing smoking would create an uneven playing field,” he said.

One proposed casino site is in the western Massachusetts community of Palmer.

“I personally do not want second-hand smoke in casinos, but if legislators feel it will bring revenues into three gaming facilities, the legislators have thought it out clearly,” said Robert Young, spokesman for Palmer Businesses for a Palmer Casino.

A study commissioned by the Senate to look at the potential revenues from casinos in Massachusetts said the three slot machine parlors in Delaware lost more than 11 percent in revenue in 2003 after the state banned smoking. The report also noted that in the years following the ban, revenues rebounded to pre-ban levels.

The report concluded that “smoking policies must be competitive with nearby regional competition.” Connecticut’s two casinos, which are both owned by Indian tribes, allow smoking and have resisted efforts by the state to ban the practice.

Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, a leading casino opponent, is supporting amendments to ban smoking from the casinos. She said allowing smoking in casinos is an “indefensible policy” and predicted an amendment to ban smoking would pass. However, Tucker said she does not believe the smoking ban will last long.

“If smoking helps (casinos) make money, there will be smoking,” she said.

Atlantic City banned smoking in the city’s 11 casinos in 2008, but repealed the ban a month after it went into effect because of complaints by casinos.