Opposing bans on smoking in public places has become an "uphill battle," says the head of the American Gaming Association, which has lobbied for years to exempt casinos from local and state secondhand-smoking laws.

The Las Vegas Sun reported May 6 that association executive director Judy Patterson said it has become almost impossible to continue to fight the smoking bans. "All the momentum is with the health groups," she said. "This became one of those issues that could not be handled industrywide."

And casinos are on the retreat at the local level, too: states like Colorado and New Jersey, for example, initially exempted casinos from their indoor-smoking laws, but are now considering stripping away those exemptions. Some casinos are even supporting a proposal to establish a single, nationwide indoor-smoking law -- as long as it also includes tribal casinos.

"The casinos have realized they are on the losing side of this, that the claims of economic disaster aren't true and that they don't want to be burning up chips on this issue because it could hurt them on other issues that are more important to them," said antismoking advocate Stanton Glantz.