Monday July 3, 2000
DETROIT (AP) - Smoking and gambling have gone hand in hand, but the MotorCity Casino has found that some gamblers
prefer to try their luck in a smoke-free environment.
The MotorCity casino, which opened last year, has set aside one of its four floors for non-smokers. The smoke-free
third floor represents 10 percent of the total gambling space, and more than 10 percent of the patrons gamble there.
Jim Tourangeau, a 64-year-old retiree, is one of them.
``When I was a young person, I smoked cigars. I didn't think I was terrible to be around,'' said Tourangeau. ``Now
I don't smoke. And I find that passive smoke is offensive to me.''
Other casinos offer sections of non-smoking tables and slot machine banks, but whole floors devoted to non-smokers
are rare in the casino world.
In Las Vegas, an attempt at an entire non-smoking casino, the Silver City, failed miserably.
The MotorCity's smoke-free floor is the first at any of the 15 casinos owned or operated by the Mandalay Resort
Group (NYSE:MBG - news). Mandalay spokesman John Marz said the company decided to test the conventional wisdom
that ``if you gamble, you smoke.''
MotorCity executives recognize that market of non-smoking gamblers, ``And when you give them an entire floor, they
appreciate it,'' he said.