Some casinos get healthier with non-smoking areas

Kathryn Masterson

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

The Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut is opening a smoke-free slot machine room, joining a handful of casinos offering healthier places to gamble.

Some casinos -- one of the few remaining places where people can indulge in drinking, smoking, eating and gambling -- are moving to accommodate customers who say they want a smoke-free place to play the slots.

Officials at the Mohegan Sun, on the Mohegan Indian reservation in southeast Connecticut, said they converted its bingo hall into the smoke-free "Hall of the Lost Tribes," because a non-smoking gambling area was the No. 1 request from customers.

"It's just good business," said Mitchell Etess, executive vice president for the casino.

The Mohegan Sun will have 600 slot machines and a cocktail bar with video poker in its new hall. It joins the state's other casino, the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in offering non-smokers a separate area in which to gamble.

Until about five years ago, gambling in a casino meant hanging out in a smoke-filled room, said John Shelk, vice president for the American Gaming Association. After restaurants and other public places went non-smoking, the movement began spreading to the gambling halls.

Nevada lawmakers introduced a state bill to require non-smoking areas in all gambling areas. But the legislation met with heavy resistance from the gambling industry.

The state's top casino lobbyist said up to 60 percent of casino visitors smoke and resorts should have the final say in whether to outlaw smoking in some areas.

Trump Plaza in Atlantic City opened an entire non-smoking building in October. Signs posted above some of the slots read "Breathe Easy" and "The only thing smoking is our slots."

Atlantic City is also home to one of the most extreme examples of trying to turn gambling healthy, a slot machine run by a stationary bike.

The Pedal 'N Play, an invention of Virginia gambling fan Kathy Harris, only works when both the slot machine and the bike are in use.

So far, the machines are only in Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, where they sit in a non-smoking area with pumping disco music and a cocktail waitress in workout clothes who serves juice and water, Harris said.

She dreamed up the invention after a birthday trip to Atlantic City where she found herself bored during a workout, wishing she was still gambling.

"I was really torn," Harris said. "I had this feeling I wasn't complete."

She hired an engineer to develop the gambling exercise machine, and she started Fitness Gaming Corporation. The company's motto: "Put your heart into gaming."

She has also invented the Money Mill, a slot machine on a treadmill, but no facility has bought the contraption.

Healthier casinos with more non-smoking areas or exercise machines on the gambling floor would help lure a younger generation of gamblers to casinos, Harris said.

"It's the way of the future," she said.

Most casino resorts offer health clubs and spas for the health-conscious. But as for the actual gaming floor, going healthy is an individual decision each casino must make based on its customers, said Shelk.

Casino operators say the health movement won't ever cause the traditional casino environment to go the way of the ashtrays in the new non-smoking areas. Pleasing the customers means providing a place to smoke, drink and eat a big steak, and innovations such as slot machine bikes are simply novelties, said Michael Dutton, a spokesman for Foxwoods.

"Gambling is a form of entertainment," Dutton said. "People typically come here to indulge themselves and escape."