Are Las Vegas casinos snuffing out smoking hotel rooms on the Strip?
In the not-so-distant past, smoking was as much an integral part of Las Vegas casinos as neon lights, showgirls and 99-cent shrimp cocktails.
But times have changed.
While smoking indoors is still permitted on the gaming floor of almost every Las Vegas casino on the Strip, downtown and around the valley, the practice is basically banned everywhere else. Nevada laws prohibit smoking in common areas, such as lobbies, elevators and restrooms, in addition to restaurants, theaters and conference rooms.
Which partially explains why more and more hotels attached to Las Vegas casinos are either no longer offering smoking rooms during the online booking process or only make smoking rooms available upon request.
The Strip’s two largest casino-hotel operators, MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, have all but shifted away from offering online bookings of smoking hotel rooms at their properties (Caesars Palace casino-hotel is the exception).
MGM phased out nearly all of its smoking hotel rooms nearly a decade ago. Caesars began doing so in the post-COVID era.
Neither company responded to a request for comment on the changes.
The online reservation systems for Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, Sahara, Circus Circus and The Strat do not offer smoking rooms. Treasure Island offers a “smoking optional” hotel room booking.
As with all things in Las Vegas, nothing is entirely out of the question if one knows who and how to ask. All of these casino properties have smoking rooms on designated floors throughout their hotels.
The Park MGM casino-hotel is the only 100 percent smoke-free gambling parlor on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Smoking is in decline
Fewer Americans today smoke than ever before, according to a recent Gallup News poll. The 11 percent of U.S. adults who admit to smoking in the last week is at an 80-year low, based on the poll’s annual findings.
When Gallup first conducted its research in 1944, 41 percent of the population said they were smokers. In July 2004, Gallup reported that 25 percent of American adults were regularly smoking.
Besides the ever-decreasing population of domestic smokers, there is another reason casino hotels in Las Vegas are moving away from offering smoking rooms — cost. In the past, casino hotel operators have openly acknowledged the increased costs with cleaning and maintaining smoking rooms as compared to non-smoking rooms.
Those costs range from additional products to negate odors to the longer time it takes to make sure ashes and cigarette/cigar butts are all gone before turning over a room. Some casino executives have also noted increased costs as a result of cleaning, repairing and replacing hotel room furniture and carpeting that is damaged or rendered unusable due to smoke, tar or burns.
Despite shifting public attitudes (and tolerance) toward indoor smoking, casino operators in Las Vegas have rebuffed efforts to snuff out smoking on their gaming floors. The issue of banning smoking inside Las Vegas casinos has not yet risen to the levels it has in Atlantic City and New Jersey (where casino workers are suing the state over workplace safety violations), but there has been mounting pressure on publicly-traded gaming companies to at least explore the possibility. Those efforts have proven to be ineffective so far.
Contact David Danzis at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com. Follow AC_Danzis on X.