Would new NC casinos allow indoor smoking? A national group aims to prevent that
The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly has been at a standstill for over a month on the state budget, with the legalization of casinos playing a part in delays.
And while precise details of the potential new gambling legislation have not yet been released, one national group is concerned that legalization will include allowing indoor smoking at casinos.
House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger have previously said that at least three new casinos could be authorized in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties. Another one could be authorized for the Lumbee Indian tribe to operate in Eastern North Carolina, they said, as previously reported by The News & Observer.
Lawmakers are looking at expanding gambling even as more casinos open in neighboring Virginia, The N&O reported, including one just across the state border in Danville, a Caesars casino which permits indoor smoking.
In a letter sent on Tuesday to Moore and Berger by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation — a national nonprofit that advocates against tobacco — the group’s president and CEO, Cynthia Hallett, urged these top lawmakers to ensure casinos do not permit indoor smoking.
“A smokefree indoor air policy is critical to protect the health of everyone who will spend time in these casinos – especially employees.”
“In addition to threatening North Carolinians’ health, inserting a special carveout for casinos now would create an uneven playing field for small businesses across North Carolina, contradict growing efforts in states across the country to close the casino smoking loophole created a generation ago, and give Big Tobacco exactly what they want,” Hallett wrote.
North Carolina law does not permit smoking in restaurants, bars, state buildings and more. Many of these bans were enacted in 2010.
Hallett also wrote that while some argue permitting smoking indoors is necessary to compete with other tribal casinos that permit it, Harrah’s Cherokee and Valley River casinos owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Western North Carolina operate smoke-free. These became smoke-free in 2021.
Berger told reporters on Tuesday that indoor smoking had not yet been considered in casino discussions.
“We’ve not actually had that conversation in terms of ‘If we’re going to do a casino bill here, what do we do about that?’” he said. “That doesn’t mean I hadn’t thought about that, but no conversations have taken place.”
Across the state border
On Monday, Berger, who represents Rockingham County, told reporters that while conversation was ongoing “no decision has been made yet” on casinos.
The plan, he said, was to keep any such legalization measure tacked to the budget instead of as a separate bill that would go through committees and hearings. Berger said passage of a budget, at the soonest, would likely happen by mid-September.
Berger acknowledged there are critics of a casino in his home county of Rockingham, but said opposition is “isolated.”
“When I talk to folks around the county, what I get is concerns about the drain that’s occurring as far as the casino in Danville,” just a 45 minute drive away, Berger said.
“There’s no question that there are some folks and they have strongly held views about the appropriateness of gaming. They would be opposed to the sports betting bill (recently passed by the legislature) and also opposed to any casino measures. I respect their opinions on that. I just believe that it’s something that’s occurring.”
Moore previously told reporters that there was a “decent amount” of support for the “Senate-backed” proposal within the House GOP Caucus.
