No dice on smoking

Ohio is the first state that forbids smoking in casinos, Ameet Patel, general manager of Hollywood Casino, which is owned by Penn National Gaming said. This will create a cultural change, Patel said. Casinos and smoking have traditionally gone together like black and jack.

Ohio’s no-smoking law got the ball rolling on the idea — and eventual policy — not to hire smokers for Penn National’s Hollywood casinos in Columbus and Toledo.

As part of an overall wellness push, the employee cafeteria does not serve fried foods but instead will offer a wide assortment of healthful choices. There is an on-site gym for employees and several programs to encourage employees to exercise and participate in company-sponsored sporting activities.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that, down the road, this will be the law of the land and smoking will be a thing of the past,” Patel said.

The law of the land on the rights of smokers in the workplace is up to each state, informs The Columbus Dispatch.

“There was a campaign by the tobacco industry, helped by the ACLU, in the late 1980s and early 1990s to pass laws to prevent companies from doing this,” said Micah Berman, director of New England Law, Boston’s Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy. Twenty-nine states passed smoker-protection laws. Ohio did not.

“Ohio is an at-will employment state, which means companies can hire or fire someone for any reason unless there’s a state law that specifically says you can’t ... such as discrimination, race, gender laws,” Berman said.
Smoking is not protected, he said.

Berman is in the midst of a study of how much smokers cost their employers, and his initial estimate is about $6,000 a year. “That’s for the excess health-care costs and costs related to lost time from smoking breaks and ‘presenteeism,’  ” he said. Presenteeism occurs “when people can’t focus due to nicotine addiction” and are less productive.

Other companies or institutions that refuse to employ smokers include Alaska Airlines, Union Pacific Railroad, Detroit Medical Center and Baylor (Texas) Health Care System.

“It’s a trend, but certainly not something that has exploded, and it’s still a small minority of companies,” Berman said.