Banning Smoking Would Help Casinos Rebound

By LINDA CASE
PLACE

The Hartford Courant

6:11 PM EST, November 14, 2012

It's time for a breath of fresh air at both Connecticut casinos. The people who run them should make the places entirely nonsmoking.

I happen to like casinos, especially the slots. In the book "Praying to the God of Chance," prominent New York psychoanalyst David Forrest says it can be a transcendent experience to flirt with probability. That's why so many people say a day on the gambling floor "takes me away from all my worries."

In recent years, however, the casinos here have gone way downhill, especially Foxwoods. Even though there are a few token nonsmoking areas, essentially each place is filled with secondhand smoke. A gray haze hangs over everything. It gets in your eyes, in your hair, on your clothes.

This environment is no boon for anybody, especially the many people using canes or carrying oxygen. Such pervasive pollution can aggravate medical conditions. And who pays?

In part, the government. What a great symbol it would be to announce a ban on smoking altogether. Conventional wisdom has it that it would hurt business. They said that about bars as well, and yet patronage didn't suffer. To the contrary, a smoking ban would serve as an invigorating force, an inspiration to patrons and, especially, to workers.

Nonsmoking is the wave of the future. The casinos planned for Massachusetts all will be smoke-free. To take this step here would be a bold, proactive move. It would signal the executives really want a vibrant new mood, not the dispirited one that prevails now. It would light a fire, so to speak, on overall low morale.

During my forays of late I have found both establishments to be depressing. Remember the slogan: "The wonder of it all?" Far from being wondrous, now they're woebegone — missing is a lot of the beauty and flow of the original establishments.

Slot machines are humongous now, with complicated jangling features. These and other pieces of equipment are added randomly, so parts of the floor look like someone's basement, filled with cast-offs.

One machine even requires an air rifle be shot at a screen. Various clangs and bangs are as loud as a locomotive. In other words, environments have become hellish. They're not fanciful, they're frantic.

Unfortunately, they reflect the managers' general air of desperation. At Foxwoods, even the the buffet has been diminished. At breakfast, the meal I usually go to, there are no tomato slices for the lox, no capers and the bagels are of the frozen-supermarket variety.

There are other reminders of the diminished mood: a hook is missing from a lavatory door; the ceiling is stained gray from cigarettes; carpeting is frayed, etc.

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, I have a few modest proposals to bring back the glam.

1. Ban smoking. This alone could serve as an energizer. It would boost morale of employees. Because of the lagging economy and threat of layoffs, most workers who hate secondhand smoke probably are afraid to make a stink.

Once the workers are buoyed up, there would be a general spirit of revival at both establishments. The drink servers would be perkier, the picker uppers more energetic. Maybe even the patrons would dress with more flair. Hey, this is supposed to be an adventure.

2. Call back the architects. Such designers thoughtfully craft settings of magic — sparkly, beautiful, out of this world. The architects should be the ones to govern any change. They would see that any added feature or fixture ties in with desired ambience. Hodgepodge is no answer.

The idea is to make the place more Monte Carlo, less dollar store. During hard times, there is a tendency to cut, to cheapen. Conversely, there is the tendency to add superficial whiz-bang stuff hawked by slick salesmen. These helter-skelter additions make things worse, not better.

3. Simplify. Clean up what you have. Personally, I miss the old slots that used coins. I know those will never come back, but at least maintain a hint of the old sensual, pleasure-dome quality.

Tribal leaders, you need artists in the picture, not only money men. You need a healthy labor force. Invite all to a powwow. Be imaginative. Smoke a peace pipe. Outside. On the lawn.

Linda Case is a freelance writer from Wethersfield.

Copyright © 2012, The Hartford Courant