Palms Debuts Massive Smoke-Free Casino-Within-a-Casino

When Palms shuttered Mabel’s BBQ, it was left with a giant space to fill. The off-Strip casino decided to turn the space into a smoke-free casino-within-a-casino, complete with lots of slots and its own video poker bar. Let’s take a look at how the tribe turned nothing into something, creating a refreshing sanctuary for the lung cancer-averse. Seriously, though. Playing here can lower your chances of cancer in your mouth, throat, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, kidney, cervix and colon. Let’s party! Mabel’s BBQ was one big-ass restaurant. It wasn’t that good, which is why it no longer exists. It closed Sept. 12, 2025. Fast forward a few months, and Palms has created an extension of its main casino floor, but with a twist. Palms says it got lots of requests for more smoke-free spaces, so it repurposed a restaurant with smoked meat into a place for people who don’t. Smoke. In case that weren’t clear. Here’s a quick look around. The new space spans about 7,300 square feet and features 224 slot machines from nearly a dozen manufacturers. The enclosed casino area is located near the casino’s sportsbook and, as mentioned, has its own full-service bar. There is some small print involved. While the new space is billed as smoke-free, that only means you can’t smoke there. It doesn’t mean there’s no smoke. That’s because the front wall of the space is highly perforated. In Vegas, smoking free isn’t the same as smoke-free. As for the bar, the video poker pay tables are pretty good. For the video poker fans, DDB is 9/5 at 25 cents, 9/6 at $1 and up. That’s not code, it’s pay table talk. As seems to be a trend of late, though, the glare from the lights above the bar is rough. For serious video poker fans, the glare makes these machines unplayable for any length of time. Behold, the bane of our existence. We had this same issue with the new casino bar at Suncoast. Following our disgruntled Tweet about the issue, Suncoast has applied anti-glare film to help mitigate the problem. We trust Palms will do the same. Plaza famously faced the same challenge at its Carousel Bar. The film helped a lot. Plaza is another casino that expanded its non-smoking gambling options. Park MGM is, of course, the Mecca for non-smokers, as that resort is entirely smoke-free. The smoke-free area at Palms quietly opened on Aug. 24, 2026. It’s just slots, no table games. This bar checks all the boxes for locals. Palms says the new area was created in response to guest demand for more non-smoking gaming options. Don’t get us started about smoking and casinos. It is patently absurd casinos still allow smoking. Casinos remain a bizarre exception to the common-sense rule nearly every other business has accepted: Smoking is dangerous anywhere people gather. Smoking is especially dangerous for casino employees. They have no choice but to breathe in smoke for hours at a time. Their beloved union is completely useless in changing this practice. Enjoy this world premiere of a song we made for you. We can't stop singing it and hope you do not have the same experience, probably. pic.twitter.com/f0BKdxYJWj — Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) September 7, 2024 The exemption survives largely because of an outdated notion that smoking is somehow essential to gambling. Or, as our fellow youths describe it, “Hooey.” In the U.S., about 9% of adults smoke cigarettes, according to the CDC’s latest 2025 estimate. It was 11.6% in 2022, so the rate continues to decline. This infuriating belief that gambling revenue would suddenly fall off a cliff if casinos banned smoking has got to go. The new slot area at Palms is a step in the right direction, though. We hope more casinos continue this trend. A little carpet porn for posterity. What’s not to love about this exuberant abstract composition of cobalt figures sweeping across a richly textured magenta field creating a sense of movement, rhythm and controlled visual chaos? Palms has a lot of great qualities. Why, then, you ask, don’t we play there more? Easy: They play marketing messages over the P.A. Constantly. It’s the only casino where they do that, and it’s one of the most annoying practices at any Las Vegas casino. Also, the music volume in some parts of the casino is unbearably loud. Palms is a locals casino. Locals aren’t putting up with that dumbassery. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s always more. A metaphor for Las Vegas itself, actually. But we aren’t here to screed, which only today we learned can be used as a verb. We are also not here to rail or fulminate. Hey, we’re already in ChatGPT getting that carpet description and asking about “screed,” we might as well get our money’s worth. We are here to applaud Palms for an excellent addition to its casino, a smoke-free slots area. The new space is clean and airy, with an appealing bar, as long as you don’t mind craning your neck to view the TV screens up above. Yes, everything has an asterisk with us. The screen mounts were inherited from Mabel’s, so we get what we get. Ditto the high ceilings. Not best practices for slot areas, but again, inherited. Asterisks aside, if you love gambling without the very real chance of peripheral artery disease, stop by and check out this new offering at Palms. The post Palms Debuts Massive Smoke-Free Casino-Within-a-Casino appeared first on Vital Vegas.