Michigan Casinos Tentatively Welcome Indoor Smoking – But With a Caveat

This comes at a time when New Jersey and Rhode Island’s casino workers, or at least a vociferous group, are fighting to ensure that smoking is banned from indoor areas.  The pandemic gave this movement a strong momentum, with a solid argument against having smokers light up in closed spaces.

Michigan Casinos Roll Back Smoking, But Things Have Changed

However, with the pandemic arguably gone, casino policies seem to be returning back to normal. Among the casinos to have returned to indoor smoking in Michigan are notable properties such as Hollywood Casino at Greektown, MGM Grand Detroit, and Gun Lake Casino.

These properties, however, are going to act respectfully towards their guest and team members’ wishes, confining indoor smoking to mostly specially designated indoor areas. Another property that maintains the same policy is Little River Casino, with the majority of land-based venues in Michigan now making sure that they separate smokers from non-smokers.

Public Opinion Split Once Again over a Long-Standing Issue

While indoor smoking has been returned in some capacity, not everyone is happy. There are those who argue that this is a good middle ground, but not everyone is happy with the decision.

Some have argued that returning to smoking in a limited capacity is bad for business – others have insisted that any degree of indoor smoking still forces casino staffers to work in an unsafe environment which could lead to serious health complications.

Much like in other states, the piece of legislation, Michigan’s Smoke-Free Indoor Air Law passed back in 2010, prohibiting indoor smoking does not apply to casinos. This is now being debated in at least several jurisdictions, with casino workers in New Jersey and Rhode Island forming powerful movements and hoping to secure sufficient political backing to make lawmakers see things their way.

One of the concerns, as already mentioned, is that business results would suffer. This has been the go-to response to opponents of banning smoking in indoor places in casinos in Atlantic City, but results in Pennsylvania have vindicated the anti-smoking camp, showing that results at non-smoking casinos remained robust if not even better.