Objective: As part of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, smoking on the gambling floors of all commercial casinos in Illinois became prohibited. This study examined the effects of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act on casino admissions per-capita and real per-capita adjusted gross receipts using 18 years of data (10 years before and 8 years after the Illinois law went into effect).
Methods: We employed a difference-in-difference regression technique using monthly data for the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri and control for numerous determinants expected to affect casino admissions and revenue.
Results: The Smoke-free Illinois Act was found not to be a statistically significant determinant of per-capita casino admissions and of real per-capita gross adjusted receipts in all the models we estimated.
Conclusions: The estimates from this study clearly indicated that the Illinois law that banned smoking in casinos has had no significant negative economic consequences for casinos in terms of per-capita admissions or revenues.
Keywords: economics; public policy; secondhand smoke.
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