Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up around a lot of relatives who smoked, or even because I casually smoked in college, but there’s something about a casino that makes me want to light up. Furthermore, after moving to Iowa, and seeing every slot machine come equipped with an ashtray, and people smoking indoors, I still can’t help but feel like… it’s illegal? It doesn’t feel right with the increasing restrictions on smoking in the last two decades.
That said, a bill that’s currently making its way through the Iowa House is one step closer to making smoking cigarettes in casinos illegal. Despite failing in the Senate, a House subcommittee advanced House File 781, which would remove an exemption from Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act, which permits smoking on gaming floors in the state of Iowa.
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The Latest on Smoking in Iowa Casinos Potentially Coming to an End:
Rep. Shannon Lundgren (R-Peosta) is a former employee at casinos and bars that allowed smoking. Per KCRG, she recalled “smelling like an ashtray” when she’d return home, and getting this legislation past has been a personal priority of hers for over a decade:
If filtration systems and air systems work, then why didn’t we let everybody do that? And if nonsmoking sections worked, which we had them in restaurants, why didn’t we let people continue that way?. It’s time, with cancer rates the way that they are in the state of Iowa, it is time to move this forward and protect those employees over profits, which I don’t think are going to drop anyway – Rep. Shannon Lundgren, R-Peosta, per KCRG…