Part and parcel of being a slot machine player, or for that matter a card or table or even a video poker player who smokes, is that you are never quite sure as to whether you are going to be able to gamble and smoke in any casino you may be visiting.
Plenty of smokers will light up at a slot machine for example and then quickly to be told to put their cigarette out by a casino employee, such as a slot technician or a casino security man.
Over in Baton Rouge, for example, the East Baton Rouge Parish having decreed that smoking is no longer permitted inside any bars and casinos, has led to the operators of the L’Auberge Casino and Hotel spending a small fortune accommodating such players.
The way they are going to be able to legally allow slot players to smoke and play their favourite slot machines at the same time is by building them an outdoor slot area, but one that comes with a huge construction cost of some $3.6million.
To ensure this covered slot area is legal and doesn’t fall foul of the new regulations regarding smoking inside a casino, it is open to the elements at one end, that being the one facing the Mississippi River.
$3.6million does seem to be a hefty price tag for a slots zone, but it will be one that is going to be home to some 100 slot machines of every description.
The owners of the L’Auberge Casino and Hotel must feel it is a price worth paying, and they must have done their research, deciding smokers were going to vote with their feet and move to a casino that does allow smoking inside the venue if they were banned from doing so in their casino.
In fact, their research didn’t take them long to complete, for the smoking ban did see the casino income drop by some 11.7% in October this year based on the income generated last year when that ban was not in force.
