Native american casinos in Iowa temporarily non-smoking

The four Native American-owned casinos in Iowa are temporarily smoke-free after reopening with precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and American Lung Association is asking them to make this change permanent, reported Iowa Public Radio this week.

Blackbird Bend Casino, Prairie Flower Casino, WinnaVegas Casino Resort and Meskwaki Bingo Casino reopened in June and July with a number of safeguards in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including no smoking indoors. Larry Wright Jr., the chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, which owns Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake, said they wanted to ensure peoples’ health and safety, plus they wanted all visitors and staff to wear masks.

Prairie Flower Casino reopened June 1 and has had a “temporary 100 percent smoke-free environment with no smoking or vaping allowed inside the casino” according to a May news release. 

WinnaVegas Casino Resort in Sloan owned by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, has had a smoke-free policy in place since reopening June 12. The casino also requires people to wear masks. 

According to the American Lung Association’s list of businesses that allow indoor smoking but have been smoke-free since reopening, the four Native American casinos in Iowa are the only casinos in the state to do so.

Casinos are exempt from Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act, which prohibits smoking in “almost all public places and enclosed areas within places of employment,“ like restaurants, bars, theaters and offices. In a statement Tuesday, Kristina Hamilton, the advocacy director for the American Lung Association, applauded the four casinos for going smoke-free.

“For right now, this is temporary,” the chairman of the Ponca Tribe said. “As far as doing it permanent, regardless, we want to make sure the environment that we have is conducive to everyone and we’ll take all the measures that we can to continue to do so.”