24 May Shareholders push casinos to reassess indoor smoking

A novel approach has surfaced in the campaign to prohibit smoking in casinos: the utilization of shareholder voting.

Shareholders of Boyd Gaming and Bally’s Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment will propose to do a research on the expenses related to allowing indoor smoking, and this proposal will be included in the ballot for the respective casino firms.

The recommendations are endorsed by Trinity Health, a nonprofit healthcare network, MKSports Login and the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Trinity Health, headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, has leveraged its shareholder position to advocate for several health programs, despite its ownership stake being very small in these organizations. Public documents indicate that Trinity possesses a mere 440 shares of Bally’s stock, which accounts for approximately 0.001% of the firm.

Boyd, Bally’s, and Caesars vigorously opposed the inclusion of the proposals in the proxy materials that were issued to shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the casinos’ appeals, and both the plans and the reasoning behind them were communicated to all shareholders.

Boyd will be subject to a vote about a smoke-free assessment during its upcoming annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. Bally’s convenes its yearly assembly on May 16, and Caesars will thereafter conduct its own gathering, most likely in June.

The three firms jointly manage a total of 75 U.S. casinos that allow smoking indoors, in accordance with state laws. Approximately 14 states allow the practice of smoking indoors within commercial casinos.

States such as Nevada and New Jersey have implemented more extensive bans on indoor smoking, but have made specific allowances for casinos. Legislation aimed at prohibiting indoor smoking at casinos is now progressing in multiple states nationwide, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

Supporters of smoking restrictions cite a study conducted by C3 Gaming, which found that casinos that prohibit smoking earn higher revenue and operate better than their counterparts that permit smoking.

Advocates of the proposal contend that shareholders should be informed about the specific amounts that casinos allocate towards increased health insurance premiums for their staff, elevated maintenance expenses, and the potential loss of customers who are averse to cigarette smoke.

Boyd contends that states that have prohibited indoor smoking have seen holy rummy apk an adverse effect, as stated in its proxy. The argument posits that the responsibility for making these decisions should be entrusted to the individual properties, as they are better equipped to adapt to local trends. It also asserts that if shareholders are successful in enforcing a ban (which Boyd contends is the underlying objective of the evaluation), the company will experience a loss of consumers to competitors who still permit smoking.

Jan Jones Blackhurst, a board member of Caesars, expressed her view at the SBC Summit North America, an online gambling conference, that the authority to prohibit smoking in casinos should rest with governments. She noted that empirical evidence has demonstrated that smoke-free casinos can see a decline in economic performance.