Pros and cons of innovative approaches to Smoke-free tribal Casinos

Audience: American Indian policymakers, tobacco control activists and researchers

Key Points: Tribally owned casinos are one of the last frontiers of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure for employees and patrons. This session will detail theories, approaches, components, and evaluation methods of two innovative tobacco control projects, ETR Associate’s California’s Clean Air Project (CCAP) and USC’s Unidos en Casinos, and results from a formative study. CCAP’s collaborative approach focuses on working with casino managers to move towards adopting and implementing voluntary smoke-free policies, by working with casinos to conduct air monitoring and surveying the clientele via mail. USC has focused directly on labor due to a large number of casino workers in southern California being of Hispanic/Latino origin. USC has made strides in identifying unique ways to work with the Hispanic workers in tribal casinos. Results from a study being conducted by Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and ETR Associates will present specific barriers to implementing casino smoke-free policies, including culturally acceptable and business sensitive methods.

Educational Experience:

Audience members will learn to:

1. Identify different approaches to working with tribal councils and casino management to adopt smoke-free casino policies.
2. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of selected strategies and the need for flexibility.
3. Understand challenges in conducting ethnographic research to understand how tobacco control policy change can happen in Indian owned casinos.

Benefits: The session will consider research on innovative tobacco control policy approaches to work toward steady reductions in casino worker and patron SHS exposure.