Smoking Ban to (Sort Of) Take Effect Soon

Atlantic City always seems to find a way to make the worst of a bad situation. A couple summers ago no one anticipated the effect of a statewide shutdown of government services on one of the state's most consistent sources of revenue. Thus, the casinos lost a few days of revenue during their key summer months, but more importantly, Atlantic City suffered a blow to its reputation in the eyes of potential visitors. As the city is in the midst of reinventing itself and making genuine improvements it found another way to stand in its own way. This time, City Council has managed to get the worst of both worlds in announcing a complete smoking ban and then reversing that ban just days before it was to go into effect.

The Press of Atlantic City reported this weekend that its heavily promoted smoking ban will last for only one week. Thus, the city's casino workers and non-smoking patrons will achieve none of the benefits that the ban set out to achieve, while just about all of the damage has already been done. Since there has been so much talk of the complete ban in casino circles many smokers have already started looking for other options, while casinos have already invested in lounges to accommodate smokers in their casino. The Press reported that Harrah's spend $7 million on these lounges, which will be unnecessary once the new delay for the ban is officially passed.

Atlantic City may have been ahead of the curve in outlawing smoking in their casinos or they may have been out of touch with their customers who expect smoking in the casinos. That point is up for debate. However, announcing a ban and then announcing the ban has been canceled serves only to upset folks on both side of the smoking debate. Whether a reprieve on the end of smoking on the casino floor gives the casinos a boost remains to be seen. As Pennsylvania and New York add more casinos, gas prices continue to rise, and the stock market continues to fall, it seems dubious to think this latest decision will have much of an impact on the profits of Atlantic City's casinos.