{"id":1028,"date":"2025-10-02T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:51:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:51:32","slug":"pennsylvania-casino-smoking-ban-again-passes-house-health-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/pennsylvania-casino-smoking-ban-again-passes-house-health-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Casino Smoking Ban Again Passes House Health Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Legislation to ban casino smoking in Pennsylvania is progressing in Harrisburg<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Currently, casinos can designate half of their floor space for cigarettes and cigars<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Legislation to prohibit tobacco smoking on casino floors in Pennsylvania has once again cleared a House committee.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_364141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-364141\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-364141 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Pennsylvania casino smoking Dan Frankel\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Gu3i-VYWIAEfLOY-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel continues to seek a casino smoking ban at the state&#8217;s 17 casinos. Under current law, each casino can designate up to half of its gaming floor space for cigarettes and cigars. (Image: Rep. Dan Frankel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) has been leading the fight to extinguish casino smoking for many years. He&#8217;s once again crusading to force casino smokers to move outside to light up a cigarette or cigar.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Frankel&#8217;s House Bill 880 &#8212; a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act to withdraw exemptions afforded to slot machine facilities &#8212; passed the House Health Committee on Tuesday with a 22-4 vote. While the Health Committee lent bipartisan support, there are zero Republicans among the bill&#8217;s 23 cosponsors.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Pennsylvanians should not have to choose between their jobs and their health,&#8221; Frankel said. &#8220;My legislation would eliminate loopholes that leave Pennsylvanian workers exposed to toxic smoke, expand the definition of smoking to include e-cigarettes, and give localities the ability to enact smoke-free ordinances that are more protective than state law.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Pennsylvania&#8217;s current smoking statute allows casinos to designate up to 50% of the gaming space for smoking.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Bill Faces Long Odds<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Frankel contends there&#8217;s a growing body of evidence supporting the claim that smoke-free gaming is better for business. He cites Parx Casino north of Philadelphia as the top revenue-generating property among Pennsylvania&#8217;s 17 brick-and-mortar casinos, and Parx officials say their decision to go smoke-free has lessened employee healthcare costs, improved morale, and attracted new customers, both gaming and nongaming patrons.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Research on trends in the casino business and consumer attitudes indicates that the conventional wisdom that smoking bans cause economic harm is severely outdated and unsupported by contemporary evidence,&#8221; Frankel said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That might be true, but many lawmakers continue to side with the gaming industry in the belief that a smoking ban would hurt play and lead to thousands of job layoffs. It&#8217;s why HB880 faces long odds of passing the General Assembly and moving to Gov. Josh Shapiro&#8217;s (D) desk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Last year, Frankel&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-ban-pennsylvania-casino-smoking-relit-in-harrisburg\/\">legislation<\/a> to prohibit casino smoking passed the House Health Committee but stalled upon reaching the House floor.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">All but two of Pennsylvania&#8217;s 17 casinos permit indoor smoking. Parx and its satellite mini-casino, Parx Shippensburg, are the exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Casino Smoking States<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are outliers when it comes to allowing casino smoking. Gaming floors in Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all prohibit indoor cigarettes and cigars.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Opponents to smoke-free casinos in Atlantic City and Pennsylvania regularly claim that a ban would lead to smokers patronizing the other market where smoking remains. The drive from Philadelphia to Atlantic City is just an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Both markets are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casino-workers-say-strong-summer-discredits-industry\/\">performing well<\/a>. In 2025, in-person casino revenue in Atlantic City, from January through August, was up 2.8% to more than $1.97 billion. Pennsylvania casino revenue in the state&#8217;s 2024\/25 fiscal year totaled $3.36 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-casino-smoking-ban-passes-health-committee\/\">Pennsylvania Casino Smoking Ban Again Passes House Health Committee<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation to ban casino smoking in Pennsylvania is progressing in Harrisburg Currently, casinos can designate half of their floor space for cigarettes and cigars Legislation to prohibit tobacco smoking on casino floors in Pennsylvania has once again cleared a House committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel continues to seek a casino smoking ban at the state&#8217;s 17 casinos. Under current law, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}