Smoking to be banned at Las Vegas Strip casino Park MGM

The Park MGM casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip will ban indoor tobacco smoking when it reopens later this month, MGM Resorts International officials announced on Monday.

Park MGM will be the first casino along the Strip to fully ban smoking, according to an MGM statement. The property, which includes the NoMad hotel, is one of the last Las Vegas Strip resorts to reopen after the coronavirus pandemic.

Executives made the property, formerly known as the Monte Carlo casino-hotel, smoke-free due to “guest demand,” Anton Nikodemus, president of MGM Resorts’ Las Vegas Portfolio, said.

“As we looked toward our reopening, we identified an opportunity to be responsive to recurring guest demand for a fully non-smoking casino resort on The Strip,” he said in a statement.

Nikodemus told The Associated Press that MGM officials think there is “a high level of pent-up demand” for a nonsmoking casino in Las Vegas. He also said that executives originally considered the idea when the casino resort opened as Park MGM in 2018.

Smoking areas will be available outside of Park MGM, and smoking will be permitted at other nearby MGM Resorts properties. 

The decision represents a unique move for a Las Vegas casino, where smoking and secondhand smoke has prompted lawsuits and debate over the years, the AP noted. Advocates had requested a smoking ban when casinos began reopening in June after the coronavirus shutdown, but those demands were not answered. 

MGM Resorts noted that access to some Park MGM amenities will be restricted after it reopens on Sept. 30, including the 5,200-seat Park Theater, which will stay closed due to coronavirus bans on crowds. 

Park MGM is scheduled to be the last MGM Resorts property in the U.S. to reopen. 

Nikodemus noted MGM Resorts properties in other states follow state laws and ban smoking.