Iowa House Subcommittee Advances Casino Smoking Ban

^{Non-smoking signs like this could disappear from Iowa casinos if House File 781 becomes law and bans smoking on gaming floors statewide. (Photo: Minneapolis Star Tribune / ZUMA Press via Alamy)}

An Iowa House subcommittee pushed forward with a bill to ban smoking at the state's commercial casinos, advancing the legislation despite objections from some industry figures.

The bill, known as House File 781, would end the current exemption that casinos enjoy from the regulations of Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act.

Health Officials Debate Industry Insiders Over Casino Smoking

During the bill’s hearing, health officials testified that there is “no safe level” of secondhand smoke consumption, and that the bill would serve to protect the health of Iowa’s casino workers. 

That argument was echoed by State Representative Shannon Lundgren (R-Peosta), a restaurant-owning lawmaker who has been fighting to remove the casino exemption for more than a decade.

“It’s time, with cancer rates the way that they are in the state of Iowa, it is time to move this forward and protect those employees over profits, which I don’t think are going to drop anyway,” Lundgren said.

However, industry officials said that such a bill would leave commercial casino operators in Iowa at a competitive disadvantage when compared to tribal casinos, which don’t have to follow the same regulations, as well as casinos in some neighboring states. They also argued that many of their properties are already smoke-free, except for some gaming floors.

“Our casinos invest in modern ventilation and air filtration systems, and many designate smoking and non-smoking areas on the gaming floor,” Iowa Gaming Association Executive Director Mary Earnhardt told the subcommittee. “These steps help manage air quality and allow our properties to serve a diverse customer base.”

But Lundgren leaned on her experience in the restaurant business, saying that concerns that a smoking ban would hurt restaurants and bars never materialized, and questioning why casinos get to play by different rules.

“If filtration systems and air systems work, then why didn’t we let everybody do that?” Lundgren asked. “And if nonsmoking sections worked, which we had them in restaurants, why didn’t we let people continue that way?”

She feels that it is "time to level the playing field" for casinos, like that of restaurants and bars.

Bill Faces Uphill Climb in Iowa Senate

Lundgren said that she believed she had enough votes in the Iowa House to get the bill out of committee and win a floor vote. However, that doesn’t mean the legislation would necessarily go into law.

Last month, an Iowa Senate subcommittee reviewed a similar bill and decided not to advance it, with at least one lawmaker saying he voted against it because the bill had no chance to move forward.

The debate in Iowa mirrors that in other states across the nation. While several jurisdictions have ended smoking in casinos, others are still grappling with the issues, such as New Jersey, which has a similar exemption in its Smoke-Free Air Act that is currently the subject of a legal challenge.

While casino operators often claim that they could lose significant revenue by completely banning smoking on their gaming floors, recent studies have suggested these concerns may be unfounded. In the meantime, many gamblers specifically seek out non-smoking casinos to play at, and we’ve put together a list of the best smoke-free casinos in Las Vegas.