As smoking bans multiply elsewhere, Las Vegas is holding strong

Walking through most Las Vegas casinos, cigarette smoke billows, stinging the eyes, nose and tongue. The acrid smell seems more prevalent than ever. Some people shuffle with purpose to tables and slot machines in areas where smokers aren’t hanging out.
Maybe more smokers really are flocking to Las Vegas, as some casino guests speculate. After all, the Strip is among the last great refuges for smokers to congregate.
California has restricted indoor smoking for more than a decade, and some cities have extended bans to outdoor areas. The number of states with some form of smoking regulation far exceeds the number of states without. With a tobacco-producing state like North Carolina recently instituting a ban of its own, how long can Vegas hold out?
While the number of nonsmoking areas along the Strip is noticeably growing, so too are the spaces where indoor smoking is allowed as new resorts open there.
That’s not to say the city and its developers aren’t facing major pushback. The American Cancer Society in Nevada sued the state, health officials and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in response to a state law allowing smoking at some trade shows.
The policies came under scrutiny again weeks later when a small fire at the Stratosphere casino was tentatively blamed on careless smoking.
And last month, the giant CityCenter project opened on the Strip to protests from nonsmokers. The 18-million-square-foot complex of hotels, condos and shops is expansive and architecturally progressive. But even this new development doesn’t dictate a no-smoking policy.
CityCenter’s Aria casino, with its coffee-brown-colored carpeting and decor, high ceilings and scented air, hasn’t succumb to the overwhelming stench that plagues older Las Vegas installations. Blackjack dealers at Aria are protected by air curtains at the table area that blast a wall of fresh air to neutralize smoke from players.
Most casinos lack the innovative safeguards of the CityCenter. Casino floors are ground zero for the proliferation of smoke, I found in recent visits to Las Vegas.
While having to take it outside in most other cities she visits, Margie Martinez, an accountant from San Francisco, takes full advantage of the opportunity to smoke in the casinos.
Puffing on a cigarette one evening at the MGM Grand, Martinez placidly discussed the perks of the lax rules. “I forget sometimes and then go, ‘Oh! I can smoke!’”
Nonsmokers say they’re sick of it. “I’m bothered by it,” said Brandon Ohm, a nonsmoker from Yuma, Wash. “If someone starts smoking, I’ll just get up and go somewhere that’s not so cloudy.”
Ohm’s friend, James Lang, a mechanic from Bothell, Wash., added, ”I’ll wake up feeling sick the next morning and my clothes smell.”
Even occasional smokers are bothered by the prevalence of smoke in casinos. Frenchie Evans, a retired Air Force technical sergeant from Oakland, said he’ll sometimes light up a cigar, prompting some nearby folks to give him “the eye.”
Despite enjoying the infrequent cigar himself, Evans gets annoyed with Vegas’ excessive smoke at times. “If I don’t like it, I’ll move,” Evans said.
Vocal nonsmokers in Vegas are pushing another idea: Move the cigarettes outside.