Could All Las Vegas Hotel-Casinos Go Smoke-Free?

With three properties in Las Vegas now committed to reducing smoking, a question looms: could all of Sin City’s hotels and casinos go smoke-free?

The travel industry can be very incestuous, so anything is possible. Witness the airlines. When one airline comes out with a fare-saving promotion, others quickly follow.

Vegas hotels are a different breed, however. Between the gambling, the comps, the shows and the accommodations – which can be extraordinary at the luxury hotels – everybody is competing and looking for differentiation. Playing one against another in the smoker vs. non-smoker crowd, it might behoove some hotels not to go to a smoke-free environment.

But The Cosmopolitan, as well as the Park MGM and NoMad Las Vegas, have all cracked down on smoking and might set a precedent in one of the world’s most tourist-laden destinations.

Michael Green, an associate history professor at UNLV and a Nevada historian, said consumer reaction will likely play a big role in whether other Strip casinos follow suit.

“Other casinos will follow if it works,” Green told the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. “I have a feeling it’s going to work, but that will be the question.”

Hotel owners and operators have history to look at. From 1991-94, the now-shuttered Silver City Casino became a non-smoking hotel; it went back to a smoking environment when hotel officials saw a noticeable decline in revenue.

But this is also a different era, and a generation after the Silver City Casino enacted (and then changed) its policy, much more has been learned about the dangers of smoking. Bo Bernhard, a professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ College of Hospitality and a gaming industry observer, said it seems only a matter of time before other Las Vegas casinos follow the Park MGM’s lead.

“Twenty years from now, it’s hard to envision any public indoor spaces with cigarette smoke,” Bernhard said.

One thing in the hotels’ favor is that they don’t have to jump through hoops when it comes to setting policy. The Sun noted that under Nevada law, the decision to restrict or ban smoking in casinos on The Strip falls to the properties themselves. Mike Thoma, assistant general manager of the Tropicana, said the decision by The Cosmopolitan, Park MGM and NoMad Las Vegas bears watching.

“It’s yet to be seen how that will go,” he said.