Shareholder Proposals Garner Practically 51 Million Votes, Urgent Casinos for Transparency on Indoor Smoking Prices
Robust Vote Outcomes Signify Shifting Attitudes on Indoor Smoking and Assist for Accountable Enterprise Practices
Berkeley, CA —A shareholder proposal calling for Penn Leisure to check the enterprise impacts of permitting indoor smoking obtained greater than 19.8% of the shareholder proxy vote, practically 1-in-5 shareholders. This degree of help, far surpassing the 5% threshold wanted to be refiled in 2026, signifies a robust degree of investor curiosity in better transparency on the enterprise prices and dangers related to indoor smoking.
With the vote at Penn, 2025 shareholder votes on smokefree on line casino proposals — submitted by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Basis (ANRF), Trinity Well being, and the Faculty Sisters of Notre Dame Collective Funding Fund — have concluded with practically 51 million proxy votes forged in favor throughout 4 main gaming corporations.
Proposals filed at Penn Leisure, Caesars Leisure, Wynn Resorts, and Boyd Gaming known as for every firm to conduct and disclose an unbiased evaluation of the prices related to permitting indoor smoking — together with upkeep, insurance coverage, legal responsibility publicity, and potential well being impacts on staff and visitors. Penn Leisure joins Wynn Resorts in assembly the brink for resubmission in its first yr.
“Shareholders are asking considerate, necessary questions in regards to the affect of smoking on enterprise operations and employee well being,” stated Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of ANRF. “Casinos gather detailed knowledge on their prospects’ habits — from what they play to the place they eat — but they proceed to withstand asking important questions on smoking. Understanding how indoor smoking impacts well being, operational prices, and client preferences will assist guarantee a sustainable and wholesome future for the business. We sit up for persevering with to have interaction with on line casino operators as they think about how greatest to handle these necessary elements.”
The votes mirror a rising name for accountability on a difficulty that impacts tens of hundreds of on line casino staff and thousands and thousands of visitors every year. Outcomes from the 2025 shareholder season embrace:
• Boyd Gaming: Over 11% of all proxy votes backed the proposal, together with greater than 21% of out of doors shareholder votes, in its second yr on the poll.
• Caesars Leisure: Practically 10% of shareholders supported the proposal, with over 16.3 million votes in favor.
• Wynn Resorts: In its first yr, the proposal obtained over 8.6% help, making certain it may be refiled subsequent yr.
• Penn Leisure: The proposal obtained over 19.8%, or practically 22 million, shareholder proxy votes, clearing the bar to resubmit in 2026.
Wynn, Boyd, and Caesars every sought to exclude the proposals from their annual proxy ballots, however the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) rejected these efforts, reaffirming that shareholder issues in regards to the enterprise dangers of smoking benefit consideration and disclosure.
“From rising well being care prices to workforce instability and altering client preferences, the enterprise dangers of sustaining indoor smoking are actual,” stated Cathy Rowan, Director of Socially Accountable Investments at Trinity Well being, a co-filer of the proposals. “Buyers aren’t asking for outright elimination beginning tomorrow — they’re asking for disclosure. We consider on line casino corporations have an obligation to guage whether or not smokefree insurance policies are good for enterprise. We admire the chance this season to have interaction with operators on these points. Whereas the vote displays a rising curiosity amongst shareholders to raised perceive the complete prices related to smoking insurance policies, we view this as the start of an ongoing dialogue centered on transparency and constructive change.”
Regardless of the constant present of help, corporations like Caesars declined to have interaction with traders forward of their annual conferences, even mischaracterizing the proposals as calling for smoking bans moderately than research.
The on line casino business has lengthy claimed that going smokefree would damage income, regardless of proof on the contrary from 20 states that ban smoking in business casinos. Corporations together with Wynn, Caesars, Boyd, and Penn already function profitable smokefree casinos in a number of jurisdictions—at the same time as they proceed to oppose smokefree efforts elsewhere.
As public help for smokefree environments grows, and extra staff converse out, traders are encouraging the business to take a recent take a look at its insurance policies and their impacts.
Background
As of 2025, 20 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, mandate 100% smokefree business casinos. Moreover, greater than 100 sovereign Tribal casinos function smokefree indoors. The rising pattern towards smokefree insurance policies displays not solely public well being priorities but in addition the enterprise case for such insurance policies.
A report by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming discovered that casinos with out indoor smoking outperform their smoking counterparts. “Knowledge from a number of jurisdictions clearly signifies that banning smoking not causes a dramatic drop in gaming income. In reality, non-smoking properties look like performing higher than their counterparts that proceed to permit smoking.”
Within the U.S., roughly 11% of adults smoke cigarettes, a proportion that has steadily declined over current many years. Regardless of this, many casinos proceed to allow indoor smoking, exposing thousands and thousands of visitors and tens of hundreds of staff to secondhand smoke. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has acknowledged that air flow and air filtration techniques can not get rid of the well being dangers of secondhand smoke.
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ABOUT ANRF
Sister group to Individuals for Nonsmoker’s Rights, ANR Basis (ANRF) is a 501c3 non-profit instructional and advocacy group that has been working for practically 50 years to guard everybody’s proper to breathe unhazardous air in workplaces and public locations, from places of work and airplanes to eating places, bars, and casinos. ANRF has repeatedly shined a light-weight on the tobacco business’s interference with sound and life-saving public well being measures and efficiently protected 61% of the inhabitants with native or statewide smokefree office, restaurant, and bar legal guidelines. ANRF goals to shut gaps in smokefree protections for staff in all workplaces, together with bars, music venues, casinos, and lodges. For extra info, please go to ANRF initiatives embrace and https://smokefreemusiccities.org/.
