Report: Smoking bans won’t threaten casino profit

For decades, it was accepted wisdom in the casino industry that eliminating smoking would automatically lead to revenue declines and customer losses.

But a new report examining how the coronavirus pandemic has changed gamblers’ habits says that may no longer be the case.

The report issued Friday by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming come as several states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, are considering banning smoking in casinos. The research firm says its report was done independently and was not financed by any outside party.

It notes that the pandemic changed several key aspects of the casino experience, including elimination of daily housekeeping in many places, closing of buffets and an end to room service — all of which customers have gotten used to. It suggests smoking will be the next such change to be accepted.

“The pandemic altered consumer expectations and consumer behavior in virtually every industry, including retail, entertainment, lodging, dining and casino gaming. One of those changes (is) in attitudes towards smoking in casinos,” the report said.

“Data from multiple jurisdictions clearly indicates that banning smoking no longer causes a dramatic drop in gaming revenue,” it read. “In fact, non-smoking properties appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.”

The report looks at casinos’ performance in numerous states since the pandemic hit in early 2020, and finds “those casinos that implemented smoking prohibitions did not experience any drop in revenues or lost market share to nearby casinos that continued to offer smoking environments.”

The authors also interviewed tribal casino executives, who said profitability was starting to increase due to lower maintenance costs, adding that 157 tribes were able to end smoking in their casinos “without economic cost.”