Poll Results: To Smoke or Not to Smoke - That is the Question

Author's note: Table Talk is intended to be an in-depth discussion of the most important issues in poker. My column will feature a wide range of perspectives designed to encourage debate and decisions on current topics within the poker industry.

The most recent poll questions dealt with smoking in poker rooms. It was not surprising that the smoking issue evoked vehement opinions from both sides. In fact, nearly 5,000 readers voted in the poll at Card Player's website – almost twice as many as responded to the previous poll question. Many readers wrote letters and e-mails expressing their personal views. Poll results reveal that the overwhelming number of readers who responded are in favor of "smoke-free" cardrooms. A breakdown of smokers' and nonsmokers' attitudes also shows that nonsmokers tend to be more firm about the smoking policy where they play. It was also interesting to hear directly from several poker room employees. There was strong opposition to smoking from every poker dealer who wrote, and many of them did not want to give their names or workplaces. What follows are the results of the poll, along with some comments.

Question 1: Should (large) cardrooms offer both smoking and nonsmoking areas ?

Yes – 59 percent

No – 41 percent

Comments: By nearly a 3-to-2 margin, respondents favor separate areas for smokers and nonsmokers. However, from the way the question is worded, it's difficult to know if the "no" respondents are in favor of "smokers areas" or (more likely) do not want any area of the casino to allow smoking. Other poll questions revealed specific attitudes toward segregated areas where smoking is allowed.

Question 2: Should smoking be banned during all poker tournaments?

Yes – 70 percent

No – 30 percent

Comments: Five years after the first nonsmoking poker tournament, it seems most players have accepted the smoking ban. However, given that nearly one-third of the respondents favor allowing smoking at tournaments, these percentages probably break down along the lines of smokers and nonsmokers.

Question 3: Should smoking be banned inside all cardrooms?

Yes – 73 percent

No – 27 percent

Comments: It's estimated that about 15 percent of all adults are smokers. So, either the poker subculture tends to have more smokers than the general population or there is greater tolerance for smokers rights amongst poker players. My interpretation of the data is that while almost three-fourths of poker players are for smoke-free cardrooms, there is a vocal minority opposed to outright bans on smoking.

Question 4 (for smokers only): Would a cardroom's ban on smoking make you play poker in a different establishment where smoking is allowed?

Yes – 61 percent

No – 39 percent

Comments: The results of this question surprised me. I expected that most smokers, by now, have come to accept nonsmoking cardrooms, and simply accept the rules as the wave of the future. Furthermore, I expected that smokers have become receptive to these rules that mandate smoking in certain areas and outside the casino. However, the data proves this is not the case. By a 3-to-2 margin, smokers refuse to patronize nonsmoking cardrooms – at least when there is an option to play in a cardroom that allows smoking.

Question 5 (for smokers only): If there's a "great" poker game – that is, you observe several players playing very badly – but smoking is not allowed, will you play?

Yes – 90 percent

No – 10 percent

Comments: This question was intended to measure the degree of conviction amongst smokers. When it comes to making money at the poker table, smokers are clearly willing to subjugate their personal views in favor of sitting in a good game.

Question 6 (for nonsmokers only): Would a cardroom's approval of smoking make you play poker in a different establishment where smoking is banned?

Yes – 75 percent

No – 25 percent

Comments: Nonsmokers are more offended by smoking than smokers are offended by nonsmoking policies. Note that 61 percent of smokers stated they would favor pro-smoking cardrooms (Question 4), whereas 75 percent of nonsmokers favor nonsmoking cardrooms. This tends to support the notion that pro-smoking casinos lose more customers overall than casinos that have instituted a smoking ban.

Question 7 (for nonsmokers only): If there's a "great" poker game – that is, you observe several players playing very badly – but several of the players are smoking, will you play?

Yes – 73 percent

No – 27 percent

Comments: This question was intended to measure the degree of conviction amongst nonsmokers. Again, the comparison of attitudes between smokers and nonsmokers is interesting. It's noteworthy that 27 percent of all nonsmokers say they will not play inside pro-smoking cardrooms under any circumstances – even when they presumably will win money. Contrast this with only 10 percent of smokers who feel so strongly that they would not play inside a nonsmoking venue (Question 5). Again, this reveals that it makes economic sense for most casinos to adopt nonsmoking policies.

Why should the clear majority (80 percent) of players have to deal with the following?

1. Blurred vision

2. Burning eyes

3. Sneezing

4. Sinus problems

5. Coughing

6. Itching lungs

7. Breathing difficulties

8. Nasty nicotine taste in the mouth

9. Extreme stress dealing with inconsiderate smokers

10. Smoke contamination of drinking water when sharing a tray

11. Smoke absorbed in clothing, and on the drive home, players cannot escape the stench

12. A last reminder while showering, as the horrible odor of smoke is trapped in the hair, and will gag a person

Smokers rights? No one should have rights when those rights have such devastating effects on so many. Nonsmokers should be mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!

- Fred J. Berger

Shouldn't good ol' free-market capitalism be deciding the answer to these questions? If Casino A offers nonsmoking poker and Casino B permits smoking, people are free to choose with their bankrolls.

I love the games at certain "smoking" rooms in Las Vegas, but as a nonsmoker, I'll occasionally give up on that "great" game if the clouds of smoke are too thick. People are free to choose.

- Eric Hastings

A couple of years ago Lou Krieger and I looked at one of the few remaining objective but powerful elements in this debate – money. What happens to the revenues of a poker room if it goes smokeless? Does it suffer losses as the smokers leave or does it actually gain revenues as lots of folks who hated the smoke return. We looked at what happened in Atlantic City casinos when the Taj Mahal went smokeless before any other casino. The answer was utterly clear. It made absolutely no difference at all.

If outlawing smoking has no impact on the revenue of the typical poker room, the remaining issues revolve around personal freedom and rights. These are not simple issues. One line of thought suggests this should not be a matter of legislation, that people are free to smoke or not, and that a cardroom can establish whatever policies management believes are most likely to increase revenues and return on equity to shareholders. This, of course, is the "individualistic, free-market" approach.

A countervailing line of thought maintains that larger health and quality-of-life issues are at stake, and that it is legitimate to restrict smoking to protect the freedom of the nonsmoker. Those who take this "protectionist, paternalistic" approach also note that the huge secondary expenses of smoking, through diminished health, escalating hospital expenses, and higher insurance premiums, fall upon them as well as those who have exercised their "basic rights."

This latter line of argument, of course, has been the dominant one in recent years, and has led to the elimination of smoking in airplanes, restaurants, and other public offices and buildings. I, for one, support this perspective and have wondered for years why nonsmoking dealers and other employees of casinos and cardrooms hadn't made more of a fuss over having to work in an environment that jeopardizes their health. Perhaps they were (are?) afraid of losing their jobs – which could lead to an argument about the role of unions, but who wants to get that radical?

- Arthur Reber, Brooklyn, NY

I am a nonsmoker, and the cardroom I play in currently allows smoking. It is unfortunate for me that the game I play is available only at that casino, or believe me, I would play elsewhere. I am hopeful that one day that cardroom will follow the trend set by the current leaders in this industry. I do enjoy playing online, because of the comforts afforded one in doing so, as well as the lack of secondhand smoke. I would rather play in brick-and-mortar cardrooms, but unless the cardroom I frequent makes the change to nonsmoking soon, I do intend to boycott it for other alternatives (such as online playing).

- Gerard Lopez, Slidell, LA

I am a smoker. I agree with some of the comments showing how silly and over-the-top the anti-smoking crusade has become. There are ventilation systems that are quite capable of keeping the air in a small room full of smokers just as clean, if not cleaner, than the air outside at street level. That way, both smokers and nonsmokers would have an equal handicap, rather than smokers having additional stress applied to them.

- Anonymous (by e-mail)

I vote NO to smoking in cardrooms. What about the unfortunate poker dealers who will die of lung cancer because they need to earn a living? In my experience, smokers are not "polite," especially in casinos. They don't care if the smoke is going right up someone's nose beside them. They listen to the hacking cough and never bat an eye.

- Anonymous (by e-mail)

The only smoke needed in a poker room is from "fire." Dealers are being killed, and insurance companies love it, while the rest of us deplore it. Blowing smoke on healthy players should be a crime. Smoking is a slow death. Let the smokers step outside. Smoking was glamorous in the 1920s and '30s. With what we know about secondhand smoke and how dangerous it is, it only makes any casino that allows it to look totally ruthless when it comes to getting everyone's money. It's bad business!

- P.I.

Regarding the issue of smoking in cardrooms, I feel very strongly. Several years ago, instead of complaining about the rooms that still allow smoking, I decided to vote with my feet. I no longer play in rooms that allow smoking, as I now have so many other great options. The cardrooms that have no-smoking policies could improve, however. I hate having to "walk the gauntlet" when leaving the room to get through the smokers. Separate smoking rooms are really the best answer for those of us who choose not to smoke. I applaud the rights of smokers, don't get me wrong, but the rights of nonsmokers don't interfere with their freedom to smoke, and their right to smoke should not interfere with my right not to have to breathe the bad air. This is not from a health standpoint, either. It makes me cough, it irritates my eyes, and it makes my hair and clothes smell bad. Enclosed smoking areas are the stone-cold nuts!

- Jan Fisher, Card Player columnist, Las Vegas, NV

If I have a choice of smoking versus nonsmoking cardrooms, I will always play in the nonsmoking room. I used to travel to a certain Reno poker room at least once a week. There is now a nonsmoking poker room near my home, and I spend two or three days a week there. The smokers just go outside during the frequent breaks. I recently went back to my old game in Reno and had to leave it after about half an hour, due to the poor airflow of the smoke in the cardroom.

- Rusty Vaughn, Grass Valley, CA

I work in a poker room in La Center, Washington. I run the tournaments, supervise, manage, and deal poker there. I have worked there for six years, and have flooded the suggestion box with requests to make the poker room nonsmoking. All employees, smoking and non, must breathe the secondhand smoke produced by smokers, which obviously has ill-effects on human health. Second, the company must pay someone to go around and clean up ashes and empty ashtrays, taking precious man-hours away from cocktail servers. Third, regarding the aesthetics of the room, burn holes on the layouts, carpeting, chairs, and cushions all cost money to replace. Fourth, the occasional smoldering fire in the trash can could one day become something far more dangerous. Finally, the following has happened: An employee walking behind a smoking customer got the hot end of a cigarette on the back of his hand, burning the employee. I cannot speak from the company perspective, but I assume that since the company has a license to sell cigarettes, it profits from those sales. And the general feeling I get from speaking with management about going nonsmoking is that they fear customers will no longer frequent the poker room if they decide to eliminate smoking. It is my opinion, however, that the success of our poker room (which is the best poker room I've ever been to) doesn't hinge on whether or not smoking is allowed. I hope that someday, the air I breathe at the place I work will be as clean and fresh as any other public place.

- Jason Gardner

Next issue: Tournament Payout Structures

Readers are encouraged to visit www.cardplayer.com, where all poll questions will be posted. You also may e-mail your comments directly to [email protected].