Smoking Ban Starts in AC

With the new smoking laws taking effect now in Atlantic City, many are concerned about the fate of the casinos. The casinos had asked to have a small portion of their casinos relegated for their non-smoking customers, however, the city council made the small portion for their smoking customers. For those who wish to smoke, 25% of the gambling floor will be allotted to you, however, the rest of the casino will be smoke free.

Casino owners and operators are concerned because they know that their numbers have already gone down because of the opening of the casinos in New York and Pennsylvania. They have seen their slot machine revenues drop over the past few months, with it coming down about 5% from where it was. Their overall revenue has gone up about 2.1% but that just isn’t enough.

Now with Pennsylvania allowing smoking and Atlantic City not, they know that even more of the traffic that would have come their way from PA won’t now. Some will come because they are smoke free, but even more will stay in their own state because of it. New York already has a smoking ban in place, so they aren’t their competition on this one.

Pennsylvania has talked about going smoke free, but one would assume that with the effect it is having on Atlantic City that they might rethink that idea before putting it into effect. Some of the Pennsylvania casinos already offer a non-smoking slot machine area for their customers, and they may end up thinking that that is all they need.

Back to Monthly Archive // Main Slot Machine News Index