A week before my one and only trip to Las Vegas, I found out I was pregnant. It was the most exciting and scary time in my life as a first time mother-to-be. But my dreams of happily gambling and lounging by the pools sipping cocktails ended right there. My cocktails turned into club sodas and all the sumptuous (but massively fattening) foods turned into salad bars (which, admittedly are fantastic in Vegas and I’m a saladaholic anyway). Like any newbie to being a mother, a nervous woman was I.
What I had not expected at all was the thick, blue layer of smoke in the casinos. There I was with my quarters, surrounded by crackle-voiced grandmas, sipping their 7& 7's and smoking like chimneys. They had their lucky charms and troll dolls all over the machines and were terrified to leave a slot in case the next person got lucky right after them. They put in dollar after dollar, and seemed to barely see the screens. They just kept dumping them in and pressing buttons. Of course, they knew exactly what they were doing but my gambling virgin self didn’t understand the Vegas process. And who knew slot machines had such power?
A former long time smoker myself, who had finally been able to quit three years before, I was shocked at how strong the smoke was. It was like a casino wide cloud and as fascinated as I was to play the slots and watch all the regulars do their thing (because as anyone who has been in Las Vegas knows – it’s like being on another planet) it occurred to me that I was actually chain smoking myself. I left and went to an empty area only to be joined a few minutes later by a gaggle of older ladies, drinks and ciggies in tow, who sat in my area, strategically placed their charms all over the machines (really, watching the whole ritual is quite fascinating!) and settled in for a session that could last a half dozen hours or more. Ultimately I gave up and headed to the pool because the smoke was too much to deal with.
We had a great time nonetheless, and my husband had a couple of hours of gambling at night while I went to bed exhausted and nauseous, as the pregnancy sickness and first trimester fatigue settled in. I didn’t care, I was having a baby and excited. But I left Vegas looking back into the massive casino with its heavy cloud of smoke and wondered how some of these old men and women were still alive! Leathered by sun exposure and smoking and drinking like frat boys, on they marched.
The New York Times published an article last week on Las Vegas, smokers and their inexorable link. They pretty much go hand in hand. Gambling, boozing and lighting up like a Christmas tree – it ain’t called Sin City for nothing! It's somewhere I would have easily gravitated to in my late teens and 20s! A town of excess and so much bad, it’s great! At least on paper. Or in movies and books.
And that’s exactly what the gamblers and smokers told the New York Times. No matter what the laws are in Nevada about smoking (it’s illegal in public places), the casino industry has made sure that smoking in their buildings remains legal. Not only that, they still have “cigarette girls” like in the old days, wearing uniforms and wandering around the casinos, selling their brand name cigarettes so the gamblers don’t have to leave their posts. Smoking and gambling go hand in hand, many say, and profess they would not gamble if they could not smoke. The gambling bosses know this, and therefore are willing to go to court to protect the rights of their smoking clientele. They are offering to install state-of-the-art air purifiers in lieu of a ban and have a heavy influence in court. This industry brings in so much money for the State that its power is palpable.
Casino employees, however, feel very differently. They object spending their entire workdays exposed to such heavy clouds of smoke and have a class action suit against the casinos pending. They have little sympathy from their clients. Smoking is part of the deal, the gamblers say. The employees can take it or leave it. The class action suit (specifically against the Wynn casino) was sparked by the death by lung cancer of a never-smoked woman, who spent years working the tables at casinos. Her daughter firmly believes her death was a result of her poor working conditions. Employees believe there is no concern for them by industry bosses – it’s all about the money.
Smokers interviewed, however, believe that since it’s legal, it’s okay. And the non-smokers have to put up, or shut up.
Tell Us
What do you think about this? Do you think the gaming industry is wielding its power, to the detriment of its employees? Are you a smoker? Do you feel your rights have been stripped by all the anti-smoking laws in the past few years?