• Home
• Slots
• Poker
• Sports Betting
• Bingo

• Casino News
• Casino Reviews
• Slots Tips and Strategy

Subscribe

Gambling Without Smoking?

As anyone who has gone to casinos knows, smoking is just part of the atmosphere. Whether you are a regular smoker, only like to smoke when you are out at a place like a casino or don’t smoke at all, when you go inside of a casino, you can almost always expect to smell smoke and have people around you who are smoking. While the majority of people just accept this as the way things are (regardless of whether or not they partake in smoking while they are in a casino), there is one state that is trying to change things in regards to this policy.

Currently, there are two casinos in the state of Connecticut. At this time, smoking is completely legal within both of these casinos. However, while it will remain that way for the time being, that does not mean that it will stay that way permanently. The reason that I say this is a policy that could change is because there are people who are working extremely hard to change the way things work in terms of casino smoking.

One of the most vocal opponents of banning smoking in Connecticut casinos is the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal. According to Blumenthal, nothing short of a complete ban will adequately protect public health. Keep in mind, both casinos currently offer smoke-free gaming and rooms, but neither of the casinos has felt that it is necessary to completely eliminate smoking from within their casinos.

Like most issues of this nature, there are people with all kinds of different opinions. Obviously, there are people who support Blumenthal and feel that a complete ban is a necessary solution. Then there are those who feel like taking away smoking would infringe on their rights while they are in the casino. The most interesting group are those people who don’t actually smoke, but feel that completing banning smoking is an unnecessary step.

The other important factor to take into consideration in relation to this issue is the impact that a smoking ban would have on the casinos and their business. According to an employee of the Connecticut Mohegan Sun, he does think that banning smoking would help clean up the casino air, but he also acknowledges that it would alienate customers and potentially have a negative impact on the casinos’ business.

Major Casino Opposition in Massachusetts

In case you aren’t familiar with the current state of casino gambling in Massachusetts, I’m going to take a minute to give you the back story (that way the main point of this post will make more sense to you). Last year, Deval Patrick (who is the Governor of Massachusetts) had a plan to license three resort casinos throughout the state of Massachusetts. However, this plan ultimately failed. If you ask anyone who was familiar with this situation, chances are they will tell you that the plan failed as a result of opposition from Salvatore F. DiMasi, who was the Speaker of the House for Massachusetts at the time that the Governor was trying to get the plan passed.

Although most people would agree that DiMasi is the reason that the plan did not succeed, the Governor of Massachusetts may have another opportunity to put his plan into action. The reason that this opportunity may be available to him is because DiMasi just recently resigned from his position as the Massachusetts Speaker of the House.

The positive thing about this scenario for the Governor is that not only did DiMasi step down, but the new Massachusetts Speaker of the House, Robert A. DeLeo, actually does support gambling. While his main objectives have been to push for slots at Massachusetts racetracks, this does not mean that the possibility of resort casinos is completely out of the question.

Because this issue is heating up once again, there have been a lot of people who have become very vocal opponents of these resort casinos being opened in Massachusetts. The most notable of all the opponents is Casino Free Mass, which is actually a consortium of people who are opposed to casinos in Massachusetts. As part of their protest, Casino Free Mass went as far as to send a letter to all legislators in Massachusetts that compared gambling to technological heroin.

On top of that, the group created a ten minute long video that focuses on the problems caused by casinos and gambling. Although you most likely do not agree with the views of this group, if you are simply interested in seeing what kind of arguments they are trying to make in regards to this topic, you can find their website here (which is where they also posted their video).