CONSUMER ATTITUDES AND VISIT INTENTIONS RELATIVE TO A VOLUNTARY SMOKING BAN IN A SINGLE CASINO RESORT WITH A DENSE COMPETITIVE SET

The positive impact of revenues associated with casino gaming has proven beneficial at both the municipal and state levels by providing a source of funding for infrastructure projects and community development. Moreover, the industry provides a significant number of jobs. In an era marked by widespread economic recession, these sources of revenue and employment have become progressively more important. As such, the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential threats that increasingly popular smoking bans impose upon the casino gaming industry. Moreover, we introduce the findings of a large-scale research project in which the outcomes suggest a market approach to the regulation of smoking in gaming venues may provide an economically feasible strategy with mutually beneficial outcomes to governmental entities, casino operators, and customers. Due to the paucity of gaming customer research, especially relative to smoking attitudes, we posit that a critical factor in this inquiry is the uniqueness of the dataset. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]