Today, smoking among adults in the United States is at an all-time low, with just 11% reporting they smoked in a 2024 Gallup poll. That number was even lower — 6% — among respondents younger than 30.
That younger, more anti-smoking generation is now becoming more of the gambling population.
As a result, the smoke-free casino movement is gaining steam in the U.S.
The noise is perhaps loudest in Atlantic City and Las Vegas — where, in all likelihood, nothing will happen soon. In fact, a recent bill proposing a generational ban on selling cigarettes in Nevada included one exception: casinos. And a smoke-free New Jersey casino bill that had momentum after passing out of committee last year hasn’t budged since.
But there are other states — like Iowa, Kansas, and Rhode Island — are looking at the topic, too.
Perhaps more tangibly, the topic is a buzzing in the industry. Advocacy groups — including Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects — keep the conversation going. Loudly. How long it takes for that conversation to have meaningful effects remains to be seen. But the end goal of reducing smoking at casinos feels feasible, especially with the alternative nicotine products available nowadays.
We’ll keep you covered at Comped when it comes to any updates — legislative or otherwise — in the smoke-free casinos movement.
But there are already tons of smoke-free casinos in the U.S. According to gamingdirectory.com, there are 1,066 smoke-free casinos and other gambling establishments in the U.S. as of April 2025.
Here are the 10 states with the most smoke-free casinos.
(We only considered properties with slot machines or slots-like gaming machines.)
1. South Dakota, 35
Hello, Deadwood.
Of South Dakota’s 35 smoke-free casinos, 27 are in Deadwood, an old school wild west town with quirky tourist attractions and, yes, a bunch of small- to mid-sized casinos to soak up that tourism revenue. One of those casinos — Rocksino by Hard Rock — is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
In 2010, South Dakota voters passed a sweeping indoor smoking ban that covered establishments such as restaurants, bars, and casinos. Notably, tribal casinos are exempt from this state law, but still the Seminole’s Rocksino is smoke-free.
2. Colorado, 34
Colorado has its own trio of Deadwood-like tourist towns in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek. These three towns boast all but two of Colorado’s smoke-free casinos.
Caesars Entertainment owns two of the casinos — Horseshoe and Lady Luck in Black Hawk — and there’s also a trio of Bally’s casinos, a Golden Nugget, and a PENN Entertainment-owned Ameristar.
The Colorado Clean Indoor Act (initially passed in 2006) was amended in 2008 to remove the casino exemption, and it’s stayed that way for 17 years and counting.
3. Michigan, 22
There are no such clean indoor act laws applying to casinos in Michigan.
MotorCity Casino is the only commercial casino of the 22 smoke-free properties. It went smoke-free in June 2020 for COVID precautions and kept the ban post-COVID as well. Detroit’s other commercial casinos (Hollywood Casino at Greektown and MGM Grand Detroit) removed their smoking bans.
The other 21 no-smoking casinos are tribal casinos that have made their own decisions to be smoke-free.
4. California, 21
There are zero commercial casinos with slot machines in California, so all 21 of these are tribal casinos. The list includes Yaamava’ Resort & Casino, the largest casino on the West Coast with more than 7,400 slot machines, and Pechanga Resort & Casino, which isn’t far behind in size with more than 5,400 slot machines.
California has 66 tribal casinos, so roughly a third are smoke-free.
5. Wisconsin, 20
Same as California, Wisconsin doesn’t have commercial casinos so these are all tribal facilities.
Different from California, though, the vast majority of Wisconsin’s tribal casinos are smoke-free — 20 of the 25.
T-6. Oklahoma, 18
Outside Nevada, Oklahoma has the most traditional Las Vegas-style casinos in the US at 141 — and these are all tribal casinos. So this 18 figure represents only about 13% of the total.
Still, a heavy-hitter in the gaming industry — Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — advocates a smoke-free policy, owning 14 of the 18 no-smoking casinos.
T-6. Illinois, 18
There’s a mixture of traditional casinos and casino boats in Illinois’ list of 18, which are all smoke-free due to the Smoke-Free Illinois Act of 2008. This act obviously did not contain the same type of casino exemption that is so common in many other states’ smoke-free bills.
PENN Entertainment, Bally’s, Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming, and Rush Street Gaming all have casinos in Illinois.
8. Louisiana, 14
Louisiana is unique in that its laws can vary based on ordinances in different cities and parishes.
In other words: A casino’s smoking policy will depend on where it’s located.
Eight of Louisiana’s 14 smoke-free casinos are in New Orleans thanks to the city’s smoke-free act in 2015. Baton Rouge — where two other smoke-free casinos are — passed a similar ordinance in 2018.
9. Arizona, 13
All 13 of Arizona’s smoke-free casinos are tribal casinos, as there are no commercial casinos in the state. These were all voluntary smoke-free decisions from the tribes, including the Gila River Indian Community, which offers more than 4,500 slots across its four properties, and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which boasts nearly 3,000 slots at its two casinos.
There are 26 Class III tribal casinos in Arizona.
10. Minnesota, 12
Again, another state with only tribal casinos. And the majority — 12 of 19 — are smoke-free.
Honorary mention: Montana
We didn’t include Montana on this list, because the state classifies even the smallest bars and taverns with a handful of slot machines on the same level as the more traditional Vegas-style casinos. As a result, there are technically 252 smoke-free “casinos” in Montana, but the vast majority of them are taverns and bars.
Here are the next five states on the list:
- New York, 11
- Ohio, 11
- Washington, 11
- New Mexico, 11
- Florida, 9
