PA Casinos Smoking Ban Hits a Wall

A bill that seeks to ban smoking inside Pennsylvania casinos remains languishing as lawmakers are yet to give it the green light. The proposal was originally put forward by Dan Frankel, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and is intended to amend the Clean Indoor Air Act of 2008 by removing the exemption for casinos and bars.

However, as the city council in neighboring New Jersey faces an anti-smoking lawsuit by casino workers, the Keystone States appears to be dragging its feet to act before things reach a similar impasse.

Bill Ignored for Second Time by The House

House Bill 1657 was approved by the Pennsylvania Health Committee on November 15 of last year, with the committee voting 13-11 in favor. And, although casino worker representatives had lobbied hard to have the bill moved for a House vote in December, this failed to happen.

With the first Committee session of the year scheduled for March, the assumption was that the bill that’s now become known as the Protecting Workers from Secondhand Smoke Act would be tabled for debate.

However, it was once again ignored in favor of other pending legislation. This effectively means that all land-based casinos in Pennsylvania can continue taking advantage of an exemption that allows them to dedicate up to 25% of the premises to a smoking area. So far, the only casinos that haven’t taken advantage of this exemption are the Parx casinos in Bensalem and Shippensburg.

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