Mount Airy’s smoke-free room opens
By HOWARD FRANK July 02, 2010
Executives at Mount Airy cleared the air Thursday.
The Paradise Township resort opened a new, smoke-free slots room on the casino’s third floor.
The 2008 clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking on at least 75 percent of the casino floor. But if the casinos can show that revenue at the slot machines in the nonsmoking area is less than those in the smoking area, the casino can, with the gaming board’s approval, expand the smoking section to up to 50 percent of the floor. Mount Airy did just that in 2008.
“I’m a nonsmoker,” Mount Airy owner Lisa DeNaples said.
“It’s difficult to separate smokers and nonsmokers in a room like what we have (on the gaming floor).”
Pennsylvania casinos can allow smoking in up to 50 percent of its gaming floor space under a special exemption within the state’s 2008 clean Indoor Air Act. The act otherwise prohibits smoking in a public place or a workplace.
The new room, called The Lakeside, was selected by executives from hundreds of entries in a “name that room” contest. The winning entry was submitted by Lorraine Byron of Tobyhanna. Byron will receive an overnight stay and dinner for two at one of Mount Airy’s upscale restaurants. she will also be invited to be among the first to play at a table when table games are expected to launch July 13.
The room is built in a floor-through space, with one side facing the resort’s lake and golf course, and the other overlooking the casino floor.
The Lakeside is a 6,000-square-foot room with 275 slot machines and a capacity of 540 people. The room is divided into two sections with cocktail service facilities in the center. The games range from penny slots to $25 machines.
The concept of the room came from the casino’s guests.
“We got a lot of customer feedback from people who wanted a room that’s totally smoke-free without people blowing smoke on them,” said President and CEO George Toth.
The room was a hit with guests on Thursday.
“It gets really smoky here on weekend nights,” nonsmoker Stacey Bardonnex of Stroudsburg said. “The non-smoking area on the floor helps, but people still walk through and you smell it.”
Josephine Naccarato of Hurley, N.Y., quit smoking 40 years ago and loves the idea of the smoke-free room. although she probably likes the idea of the slot machines, too.
“I love to gamble. I’d come here every day,” she said, if she could get a ride.
Even smokers Mary Gould and her husband, Dennis, of Drums like the new room.
“Sometimes we just want to get away from the smoke,” she said.
The room features jeweled chandeliers, multicolored carpeting and hammered-copper wall coverings, with draperies and large windows facing the gaming floor and lake.
Mount Airy guests have another reason to celebrate. The casino began offering complimentary drinks to all guests who are actively gaming, a stipulation for the free drinks under gaming board regulations.
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<a href="http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100702/NEWS/7020369/-1/NEWS01tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100702/NEWS/7020369/-1/NEWS01Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:10:31 GMT 00:00″>Mount Airy’s smoke-free room opens