Nearly 60% of Nevadans Support Ending Indoor Smoking at Nevada Casinos, New Poll Shows

Large, Growing & Diverse Coalition Exploring How to Change Nevada Law to Close Casino Smoking Loophole & Protect Nevada Workers

Pollster: Opponent Arguments Fall Flat With Voters; Efforts to Convince Votes Otherwise “Would Fail”

Las Vegas, NV – A new poll released today by the Nevada Tobacco Control & Smoke-free Coalition finds that a clear majority of Nevadans support ending indoor smoking at Nevada casinos and other workplaces in the Silver State. By a nearly 20-point margin, Nevada voters support making all workplaces in Nevada, including casinos, 100% smokefree indoors–even after hearing an onslaught of expected opposition arguments. A clear majority–58%–of Nevada voters support a potential law, while just 39% of Nevada voters are opposed to such a law.

Nevada voters also favor elected officials who support making casinos smokefree indoors. A majority (55%) would have a more favorable opinion of their legislators representing them in Carson City if they voted to make all workplaces smokefree indoors. Read the full polling memo here.

“The main takeaway from this research is that Nevada voters’ support for 100% smokefree workplaces, including in casinos, is strong, consistent, and resilient,” said Jill Normington, partner at Normington Petts. “Even if opponents of such a law massively outspent proponents to sway public opinion, our research shows they would fail. Support among Nevada voters remains strong across demographic, geographic, and partisan lines, and legislators who support a potential law stand to gain from taking such a position.”

Nevada’s Clean Indoor Air Act took effect in December 2006 but excluded clean air protections for more than 100,000 in casinos and other workplaces; this loophole in state law leaves these workers exposed to dangerous secondhand smoke that, even through brief exposure, causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, COPD, and other diseases.

“Too many Nevada workers, especially in our state’s casinos, are forced to choose between their health and a paycheck,” said Cari Herington, executive director of the Nevada Cancer Coalition. “This survey shows taking action to finally close this loophole in our state law would be well-received by voters and legislators’ constituents. A large, diverse, and growing coalition in Nevada is exploring various avenues to right this wrong and finally end indoor smoking, protecting roughly 100,000 Nevada workers from the known, harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Every worker deserves a safe workplace.”

United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents thousands of casino workers at MGM, Caesars, Wynn and other properties in Las Vegas, is backing efforts across the country to close the casino smoking loophole, with UAW President Shawn Fain saying, “Casino workers are being left out in the cold when it comes to the smokefree air act.”

“UAW fully supports efforts to ensure the same workplace protections for our members that virtually every other Nevada worker enjoys – a workplace free from toxic smoke,” said Paula Larson-Schusster, president of UAW Local 3555 in Las Vegas, a table games dealer at the Flamingo and a leader of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, or CEASE, in Nevada. “We’re tired of risking our health for eight hours a day and losing colleagues to illness and disease that are entirely preventable.”

CEASE is a group of thousands of casino dealers and other frontline gaming workers that formed after indoor smoking returned on July 4, 2021 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and has expanded to states around the country.

“We started CEASE in New Jersey three years ago because we had had enough of our state’s elected leaders failing us,” said Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of CEASE and a table games dealer at MGM’s Borgata in Atlantic City for nearly three decades. “Since then, we’ve expanded to states across the country, including Nevada, because our fellow casino workers saw the movement we created and finally had some hope that we could change our work environment for the better. Voters everywhere support ending indoor smoking because only 11% of the population smokes and every other business requires patrons to step outside to smoke. Such a policy will work just fine for casinos, too, and save our lives in the process.”

The poll was conducted by Normington Petts, a firm with deep experience in Nevada over the last decade that includes leading Nevada polling for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and conducting research for congressional, secretary of state and lieutenant governor campaigns and for outside groups focused on marquee House and Senate races in the state. Normington Petts is the polling firm for Congresswoman Susie Lee’s 2024 re-election campaign.

Methodology

The hybrid survey was conducted via live interviewer landline, mobile, and text-to-web among 800 registered voters in Nevada. Interviews were conducted January 18-21, 2024. The sampling error for this survey is ±3.5%. The poll was commissioned by a coalition of public health non-profit organizations.

About Nevada Tobacco Control & Smoke-free Coalition (NTCSC)

The Nevada Tobacco Control & Smoke-free Coalition is composed of collaborating partners, both individuals and organizations, from many sectors: public health, health care, local and national nonprofits, community-based organizations, insurance payors, professional and medical associations, higher education, and government. NTCSC members work together toward the goal of ultimately eliminating commercial tobacco use and secondhand smoke and vape exposure as a public health issue. For more information, please visit: https://nvtobaccopreventioncoalition.org/.

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