Navajo Nation Council exempts gaming facilities in smoking ban

Friday, July 22, 2011  

The Navajo Nation Council voted 14-5 to ban smoking at public places on the Navajo Nation, with an exemption for gaming facilities.

The tribe operates two casinos and is building more. Gaming executives feared a smoking ban would hurt their new business.

The exemption will be reconsidered after the tribe pays off its gaming-related debt. That could be in about seven years.

"We're trying to mitigate our business risks associated with a 100 percent smoking ban, provide the jobs and revenue that the Navajo Nation so badly needs and at the end of the day become entirely smoke-free for our people," Sean McCabe, the chairman of tribe's gaming board, told the Associated Press. "Once we eliminate that debt, pay off that debt, our business risk is gone."

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