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Date Posted: 09:15:37 05/24/21 Mon
Author: Mark
Subject: Smoking Back At My Favorite Casino

In November 2020, the biggest casino in central Iowa announced it was going to "temporarily" ban smoking to help mitigate COVID spread just as positive cases of the virus were surging. I was actually surprised they held out as long as they did as most other casinos reopened in the summer with full smoking bans, typically framed as "temporary". I was skeptical that smoking would ever return, figuring the casinos would take advantage of the situation to ween their customers off of tobacco. Nonetheless, I took a look at the casino's website last week once mask mandates and other strident COVID mitigation policies began to be lifted. Imagine my surprise when I saw they had quietly lifted the smoking ban, albeit with the disclaimed that smoking was limited to "designated areas". I made the choice then and there to make my first visit to the casino since Halloween 2020 this past Saturday night.

I was feeling pretty electric when I arrived, although cautiously so given the cryptic "designated smoking area" description on the website. Masks were still mandated even after the CDC lifted the mask mandate nationally so I knew not everything was gonna be back to normal, and when I stepped in the revolving door and past the turnstile, I was alarmed that the pervasive odor of cigarette smoke that usually dominates my senses when I step into the casino was nowhere to be found, and I rode up the escalator to the gaming floor thinking it could be a very short night. I got a mix of good news and bad news. The good news was the gaming floor to my right was indeed a "designated smoking area". The bad news was the the gaming floor to my right continued to be a "no smoking area". Unfortunately, I preferred the gaming floor on the left, which had the open-space roulette wheels and black jack tables, as well as the most spacious casino bar and best arrangement of machines. Maybe when all COVID mitigation protocols are eventually waived, this area will revert to permitting smoking, but that is by no means clear.

I took the glass half full approach though given that one week ago I had doubted that smoking would ever return to the casino. It would be challenging to simply weave my way through the machines in the single gaming room that allowed smoking for hours as I did when I could migrate from one gaming floor to the next, but luckily for me, there would end up being enough going on in the smoking-designated gaming room the other evening that I wouldn't have to.

Anybody know if smoking bans have been quietly lifted in any other casinos that banned them last year? It might be worth a look on their website or a call to their front desk. I don't even know when smoking was allowed to return in my Iowa casino. It might have quietly happened months ago!

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