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. 2019 May/Jun;134(3):234-240.
doi: 10.1177/0033354919834581. Epub 2019 Mar 21.

Attitudes Toward Smoke-Free Casino Policies Among US Adults, 2017

Michael A Tynan  1 , Teresa W Wang  1 , Kristy L Marynak  1 , Pamela Lemos  1 , Stephen D Babb  1
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Attitudes Toward Smoke-Free Casino Policies Among US Adults, 2017

Michael A Tynan et al. Public Health Rep. 2019 May/Jun.

Abstract

Research shows that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and that eliminating smoking indoors fully protects nonsmokers from indoor SHS exposure. Casinos often allow smoking indoors and can be a source of involuntary SHS exposure for employees and visitors. We examined attitudes toward smoke-free casino policies among US adults. During June and July 2017, we used a web-based survey to ask a nationally representative sample of 4107 adults aged ≥18 about their attitudes toward smoke-free casinos. Among 4048 respondents aged ≥18, a weighted 75.0% favored smoke-free casino policies, including respondents who visited casinos about once per year (74.1%), several times per year (75.3%), and at least once per month (74.2%). Although the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents who favored smoke-free casino policies varied, the majority in each group, except current smokers (45.4%), supported smoke-free policies. Allowing smoking inside casinos involuntarily exposes casino employees and visitors to SHS, a known and preventable health risk. Further assessment of public knowledge and attitudes toward smoke-free casinos at state and local levels may help inform tobacco control policy, planning, and practice.

Keywords: policy; public attitudes; secondhand smoke; smoking; tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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