Pennsylvania Casino Smoking Bill Continues to Linger in State Capitol

Legislation inwards Pennsylvania that seeks to close the indoor smoking loophole afforded to casinos and sure other businesses passed a House committee cobbler's last November. Five months later, the step stock-still hasn’t been acted on past the good House of Representatives.

The Keystone State Health Committee signed off on House Bill 1657 on Nov 15. Known as the Protecting Workers From Secondhand Smoke Act, the statute was authored by country Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), a longtime counselor of banning indoor baccy apply to protect employee health.

Frankel’s HB 1657 was initially scheduled for critique in the House chamber this week, but the item was pulled from the order of business after the lawmaker said more clip was required to rallying upwardly support. Legislative efforts to get rid of cassino smoking interior Atlantic City casinos seem unlikely anytime soon, though a lawsuit filed this month seeks to prohibit baccy utilization at the IX New island of Jersey casinos through and through a courtroom order.

Pennsylvania lawmakers representing casinos inwards City of Brotherly Love are interested that a smoking forbiddance would termination inwards some gamblers taking their business an minute east to Atlantic City.

Smoking Stalemate

Pennsylvania’s Clean Indoor Air Act passed in 2008 provided an exception for casinos that allows brick-and-mortar businesses to apportion upwards to 25% of their gaming story blank for baccy use. Of the 17 casinos inward the commonwealth, only two, Parx Casino in Bensalem and Parx Casino Shippensburg, don’t use up advantage of the smoking allowance.

However, Parx is the richest gambling casino of the bunch. The cassino set just now northerly of Philadelphia won $588.2 billion lowest year to easily best runner-up Wind Creek Bethlehem-Judah at $526.3 million. Frankel reasons that Parx’s carrying into action shows smoking bans are good — not tough — for gaming businesses.

It’s preposterous to debate that smoking bans are big for byplay when Pennsylvania’s most successful cassino is voluntarily smoke-free,” Frankel said in conclusion autumn after his eyeshade cleared the Health Committee.

“A growing personify of evidence suggests that smoke-free environments draw in to a greater extent customers, not fewer,” Frankel added. “Pennsylvanians should not feature to choose betwixt their jobs and their health. This lawmaking is not just now upright for health — it’s also good for business.”

Industry Claims

Commercial gaming lobbyists persist in to narrate lawmakers that smoking bans wounded business. In Atlantic City, the Casino Association of New Jersey commissioned a study that concluded a smoking forbiddance would melt off one-year gaming revenues past as often as 25%, vital income that would direct to substantial layoffs and mayhap casino closures.

In Pennsylvania, some analysts trust Parx has turn the richest casino because it attracts much of the nonsmoking crowd. If a smoking banning was instituted statewide, that demographic would live divvied upward among the Philly casinos, including Live!, Harrah’s, Rivers, and Valley Forge. Smokers would travelling to Atlantic Ocean City and the forbiddance would thence ensue inwards a network loss.

According to the PA Gaming Control Board, land casinos employ about 14,800 people at their brick-and-mortar properties. Casino taxes reenforcement an array of programs, including prop assess reductions, agricultural support, the horse racing industry, community grants, and economical development.