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For the Love of Money
By Jack M.
Lipsman
The casino
industry does not simply ignore the damage second-hand smoke
inflicts on dealers and other employees, they encourage the nasty
habit by providing free cigarettes to their gambling customers.
And then, in what must be the height of blind arrogance, they
savagely fight any claim of dealer disability brought by their
exposure to smoke in the casino. How typical. They take this
stance for one reason... yeah, you guessed it: money!
They could ban smoking at the gaming tables, but they will
not. For one thing, they feel they would lose business if they had
to enforce a smoking ban at the gaming tables. It would offend the
sensibilities of the players, management reasons, if the players
were forced to leave the tables and go to a casino- located,
enclosed and ventilated smoking area, such as we now have at all
major airports, to grab a smoke. To say nothing of the gambling
time lost for the round trip to nicotine heaven. Or they could
capture and exhaust the smoke right at the gaming tables, but they
will not do that either. That is simply because they must make a
nickels and dimes tradeoff before purchasing and installing
state-of-the-art ventilation equipment, and capital expenditures,
other than those directly relating to gambling, are anathema to
gaming executives.
"What
about our health?"
So, all this
for the love of money. But what about our health. Does that not
count for something? The American Medical Association (AMA) thinks
so, and we heartily (pun intended) agree. In December 1998, the
AMA published a paper showing the results of a study on the
respiratory health of bartenders both before and after a smoking
ban in all California bars and taverns. The three major focus
points of the study were respiratory symptoms, sensory irritation
and respiratory volume and capacity. Respiratory symptoms declined
by 59% and sensory irritation was down by 78% after the smoking
ban. Lung capacity and volume both improved measurably after the
smoking ban was implemented.
Dealers in every casino should be talking to each other and
to management about the results of this study. But real change
will only occur if we let our legislators in Carson City know how
we feel. The NCDA will forward individual letters or group
petitions on this subject to the appropriate legislators and
committees in Carson City. Call 474-9766 for assistance or just
forward the letters and / or petitions to: NCDA, P.O. Box 71496,
Las Vegas, NV 89170
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