- Laws to ban on line casino smoking in Pennsylvania is progressing in Harrisburg
- At present, casinos can designate half of their ground area for cigarettes and cigars
Laws to ban tobacco smoking on on line casino flooring in Pennsylvania has as soon as once more cleared a Home committee.
Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel continues to hunt a on line casino smoking ban on the state’s 17 casinos. Beneath present regulation, every on line casino can designate as much as half of its gaming ground area for cigarettes and cigars. (Picture: Rep. Dan Frankel)
Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) has been main the struggle to extinguish on line casino smoking for a few years. He’s as soon as once more crusading to power on line casino people who smoke to maneuver outdoors to gentle up a cigarette or cigar.
Frankel’s Home Invoice 880 — a proposed modification to the Pennsylvania Clear Indoor Air Act to withdraw exemptions afforded to fit machine services — handed the Home Well being Committee on Tuesday with a 22-4 vote. Whereas the Well being Committee lent bipartisan assist, there are zero Republicans among the many invoice’s 23 cosponsors.
“Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to decide on between their jobs and their well being,” Frankel mentioned. “My laws would remove loopholes that go away Pennsylvanian employees uncovered to poisonous smoke, broaden the definition of smoking to incorporate e-cigarettes, and provides localities the power to enact smoke-free ordinances which are extra protecting than state regulation.”
Pennsylvania’s present smoking statute permits casinos to designate as much as 50% of the gaming area for smoking.
Invoice Faces Lengthy Odds
Frankel contends there’s a rising physique of proof supporting the declare that smoke-free gaming is healthier for enterprise. He cites Parx On line casino north of Philadelphia as the highest revenue-generating property amongst Pennsylvania’s 17 brick-and-mortar casinos, and Parx officers say their determination to go smoke-free has lessened worker healthcare prices, improved morale, and attracted new clients, each gaming and nongaming patrons.
Analysis on traits within the on line casino enterprise and client attitudes signifies that the traditional knowledge that smoking bans trigger financial hurt is severely outdated and unsupported by up to date proof,” Frankel mentioned.
That is likely to be true, however many lawmakers proceed to aspect with the gaming business within the perception {that a} smoking ban would damage play and result in hundreds of job layoffs. It’s why HB880 faces lengthy odds of passing the Basic Meeting and shifting to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) desk.
Final yr, Frankel’s laws to ban on line casino smoking handed the Home Well being Committee however stalled upon reaching the Home ground.
All however two of Pennsylvania’s 17 casinos allow indoor smoking. Parx and its satellite tv for pc mini-casino, Parx Shippensburg, are the exceptions.
On line casino Smoking States
Within the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are outliers in the case of permitting on line casino smoking. Gaming flooring in Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all prohibit indoor cigarettes and cigars.
Opponents to smoke-free casinos in Atlantic Metropolis and Pennsylvania repeatedly declare {that a} ban would result in people who smoke patronizing the opposite market the place smoking stays. The drive from Philadelphia to Atlantic Metropolis is simply an hour.
Each markets are performing nicely. In 2025, in-person on line casino income in Atlantic Metropolis, from January by way of August, was up 2.8% to greater than $1.97 billion. Pennsylvania on line casino income within the state’s 2024/25 fiscal yr totaled $3.36 billion.
