Experiences elsewhere and impartial scientific studies, based on empirical data, show that smokefree gaming doesn't hurt gaming profits

from: Economic facts of smokefree gaming

by Regina Carlson, Executive Director
3 February 2006

Delaware's smokefree air law did not affect revenue from gaming in Delaware, as shown by data obtained from the Delaware Video Lottery, and published in a scientific study in the peer-reviewed, international journal Tobacco Control. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, in a letter to New Jersey Senators Adler and Vitale in March 2005, more than two years after Delaware's smokefree air law went into effect, said, "Delaware's three slot machine casinos have all experienced their highest revenue periods in the last two years."

California's smokefree air law includes gaming sites. The California Board of Equalization found that gaming revenues increased more than 5% following implementation of the statewide law.

In Massachusetts, local ordinances requiring smokefree bingo and charitable gaming were not associated with lost profits, even though patrons could have gone to other municipalities without smokefree ordinances, according to a scientific study based on reports to the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission.

An April 2005 smoking ban impact report to New Jersey Treasurer John McCormac concluded "...there is little objective evidence of any, much less a sizable, negative economic impact." The report also said of unique activities like gaming, "If there is no ready substitute for the activity, patrons who are smokers will adapt rather than disappear."

A New Jersey Office of Legislative Services fiscal estimate of the proposed New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, July 15, 2005, concluded there would be no fiscal impact.

In spring 2005, International Communications Research, an independent research organization, surveyed 496 adults in the Mid-Atlantic states about smokefree casinos and the proposed New Jersey smokefree air legislation. Nonsmokers said they'd be more likely to go to Atlantic City if casinos were smokefree, smokers said they'd still visit. The researchers estimated that smokefree casinos would bring 1.5 million more visitors to Atlantic City.

The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education of the University of California, San Francisco, in December 2005 examined a November 2005 report the Casino Association of New Jersey commissioned from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a report which predicted economic losses for casinos if New Jersey enacted the smokefree air law. But, the University of California Center concluded, "Like many other such 'studies' produced on behalf of the tobacco industry and its allies, this 'report' is not based on any hard data, but rather makes a series of unsupported assumptions." For instance, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report assumed that smokers would reduce their visits to casinos but, paradoxically, assumed nonsmokers would not increase their visits. No empirical evidence was presented to support either assumption. Correcting for just one of several such assumptions, the UCSF concluded that revenue would, in fact, increase 7% the first two years.