Nevada Smoking Ban Update

We all know about some of the new laws and propositions that were passed in November by voters in various states, and how some of them have to do with smoking in the workplace. If you don’t know, you will after reading my and other blogs here at this site. But getting back to my point—one of those smoking bans occurred in Nevada, a state that perhaps you wouldn’t think could afford a smoking ban—considering all of the hard core gamblers and party hunters that come through Reno and Las Vegas.

But therein lies the one major exemption to the Nevada anti smoking law passed by voters in the November elections. The casino floors—where all of the one armed bandits, black jack tables, roulette wheels, and craps pits are—are exempt from the law, meaning if you run a casino, your customers are allowed to smoke their brains out there. Should your employees be allowed to smoke their brains out too?

Well, before you answer that question for you and your work force, it is important to note an update on the smoking ban passed in November in Nevada—some folks have taken the law to court, saying that it is unfair that these casinos have that exemption to the law, whereas other establishments in the state, such as restaurants and bars and such—have to follow the letter of the law.

Another way to look at the exemption, too, is from the perspective of the employees at the casinos. One of the major pushes for these anti smoking bans is that they protect the rights and the lungs of the employees in bars, restaurants and other places where normally people would be puffing away on cigarettes. Casino employees, unless they smoke themselves, could be irked because there is no protection for them in the Nevada law. Stay tuned to see what happens to their lungs.