Mount Airy Casino Resort, the Pocono Mountain resort that anti-smoking advocates have praised as one of the few in the state to have implemented a voluntary ban on indoor smoking, is again permitting smoking on half of its gaming floor.
The news, which places Mount Airy in the same category as most Pennsylvania casinos, came out of the resort’s relicensing hearing conducted by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, according to Penn Bets. It also is listed on the casino’s website that “smoking is permitted on the casino floor in designated smoking areas.” It is not known exactly when the non-smoking policy was reversed.
Mount Airy officials declined a request for comment from Penn Bets. Anti-smoking advocates, however, had plenty to say.
“For significant parts of 2021 and 2022, Mount Airy voluntarily operated smoke-free indoors, even after pandemic-induced regulations and mask requirements were lifted across Pennsylvania,” wrote Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, in a statement from the organization. “We applauded this decision and were disappointed to learn of their more recent decision to once again put employee and guest health at risk by allowing indoor smoking.
“It was especially disappointing considering that the casinos did not experience a negative impact on revenue during the time period when smoking was not permitted indoors. In fact, Mount Airy posted higher revenue from in-person slot and table play for the first quarter of this year than in the pre-Covid first quarter of 2019.”
The development leaves two Pennsylvania casinos, Parx in Bensalem and Rivers Casino Philadelphia, as the only ones in the state with a voluntary ban on indoor smoking.
