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." Get the Story: