- Laws in Missouri seeks to finish indoor on line casino smoking
- On line casino income has stagnated within the Present-Me State lately
- Seventeen states permit some type of on line casino smoking
Missouri is one in every of 17 states that permit indoor on line casino smoking. But once more, some lawmakers within the Present-Me State hope to amend Missouri’s smoking legal guidelines to power gamblers exterior to gentle up.
On line casino smoking stays on the 13 on line casino gaming flooring in Missouri. Laws has as soon as once more been launched within the state Common Meeting to power the casinos to supply smoke-free environments. (Picture: Shutterstock)
Missouri’s Clear Indoor Air Regulation bans smoking inside most public locations. Nevertheless, the state’s 13 casinos have been offered immunity, as long as the gaming flooring present supposedly smoke-free areas, too.
Missouri casinos are allowed to allow indoor tobacco use on as much as 30% of their gaming flooring.
Home Invoice 1618, bipartisan laws from state Reps. Bruce Sassmann (R-Osage), Terri Violet (R-St. Charles), and Adrian Plank (D-Boone) would set up the Missouri Clear Indoor Air Act and rescind almost all indoor smoking exemptions, together with these for gaming amenities.
HB1618 would require “gaming amenities and every other amenities during which any gaming or playing exercise is performed” to be completely smoke-free.
Free Smoking Legal guidelines
Beneath Missouri’s present Clear Indoor Air Regulation, an proprietor of a public place or work web site can permit indoor smoking as long as they designate an space for tobacco consumption and place the suitable signage. Well being care, day care, and little one care amenities, in addition to instructional amenities, public restrooms, libraries, museums, and artwork galleries, should be 100% smoke-free.
Eating places and bars with fewer than 50 seats can permit indoor smoking anyplace, as long as they put up an indication saying “Non-Smoking Areas are Unavailable.” HB1618 would overhaul the state’s smoking situations and take away the entire exemptions, with the lone exception being for cigar and tobacco bars the place the enterprise derives greater than 50% of its annual income from the on-site sale of tobacco merchandise.
Whereas indoor smoking exceptions stay widespread in Missouri, payments to ban tobacco use in most companies have failed in latest legislative periods. Comparable payments to HB1618 have been thought of in each 2023 and 2024, and whereas some cleared committees, no regulation cleared a chamber of the Common Meeting.
Missouri Gaming Income
2026 won’t be the 12 months for advocates campaigning for smoke-free casinos, because the business has stagnated.
In Missouri’s 2025 fiscal 12 months that ended June 30, the state’s casinos collectively generated gross gaming income (GGR) of $1.91 billion. That marked only a 1% enhance on the 2024 fiscal 12 months when on line casino win totaled $1.89 billion. Final 12 months was additionally decrease than 2023, when GGR was greater than $1.92 billion.
Missouri is bordered by six states which have casinos — Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Solely Nebraska and Illinois require casinos to be smoke-free.
A smoking ban may end in some Missourians taking their gaming enterprise into states the place on line casino smoking stays. The smoking fee in Missouri is significantly larger than the nationwide common of 11.6% of adults. The American Lung Affiliation estimates that 16.8% of adults in Missouri smoke tobacco.
