When entrepreneur and pool aficionado Mark Griffin began planning Griff’s, an elegant pool hall, restaurant and bar that opened locally Oct. 31, a couple of objectives were paramount.
“First, I opened Griff’s because Las Vegas needed a billiards room to give pool the respect it deserves,” said Griffin, founder and president of CueSports International, which owns Billiards Congress of America Pool Leagues and USA Pool Leagues. CueSports produces some of the nation’s premier professional tournaments, such as the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championships.
“We wanted a first-class facility to make a statement about what a pool hall is supposed to be like — tasteful, sleek, modern and clean — and I think Griff’s is as nice as any nightclub in town,” said Griffin, who opened his first pool hall in his native Anchorage, Ala., in 1969.
Griff’s, an 8,000-square-foot space at 3650 S. Decatur Blvd., features 17 7-foot pool tables, eight 9-foot tables and an antique 12-foot Brunswick snooker/golf table. It caters to recreational enthusiasts and serious competitive league players alike. With 25 flat-screen televisions and a full restaurant and bar, Griff’s also attracts sports fans.
The facility stands out, as well, because Griff’s is 100 percent smoke-free, a move that is unusual for a business in a state that received three failing grades in February in the American Lung Association’s annual State of Tobacco Control report. But Griffin had good reason for keeping cigarettes out of his new enterprise.
A heavy smoker for many years, the 70-year-old quit the habit in 1991. Nonetheless, he required a lung transplant many years later, receiving the gift of life in January 2015. He wonders if perhaps his breathing problems were the result of exposure to ash from volcanic eruptions in Alaska when he was a child.
“I’d had bad lungs for years, and spent my share of time in smoke-filled pool halls,” Griffin said. “But as a kid, we were playing in volcanic ash and throwing it in each other’s faces, so who knows why I needed new lungs. I’m lucky to be alive now, and that’s why Griff’s is nonsmoking.”
The new venue was stripped to bare bones and completely overhauled to eliminate any lingering odors.
“We wanted it all to be brand-new, so the only thing that’s original to the building is the ceiling grid and a couple of walls. The response to the no-smoking policy has been overwhelmingly positive,” Griffin said. “I have maybe 10 people a day saying thank you.”
Despite having made a significant investment to upgrade and outfit the property, Griffin doesn’t feel he was taking a gamble on going smokeless.
“I really don’t know that there was a financial risk, because the pool players are going to go where there’s the nicest equipment and the best tournaments, so if we run a good-quality product in the pool arena, we’ll attract the pool players,” Griffin said. “But I also wanted to open to the broadest baseline possible, and that’s nonsmokers.”
Griffin said smoking venues tend to alienate nonsmokers, while smokers still patronize nonsmoking facilities.
“They can always go outside, and since more and more people are not smoking, I think we were just following a trend,” he said. “And maybe I was being a little selfish, because I wanted a nice place where I could go, too. I don’t think I would have opened Griff’s if it was a smoking room.”
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The launch of the smoke-free venue came as the state marked the 10-year anniversary of the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, which went into effect Dec. 8, 2006. It limits tobacco use within most indoor places of employment, including schools, grocery stores, restaurants, malls and retail establishments, government buildings and movie theaters, although it doesn’t apply to casino gaming areas.
Therein lies the rub, according to Bronson Frick, associate director of Berkeley, Calif.-based Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, a national lobbying organization founded in 1976.
“Because of exemptions for gaming venues, 10 years later, the people left behind are still being exposed to secondhand smoke, with the gaming workforce now identified as the most exposed job sector to secondhand smoke of any job sector in the United States,” Frick said.
“A casino is more than just a building. It’s a workplace for hundreds and often thousands of employees and visitors,” he added. “The science is clear that ventilation systems, smoking sections, smoking rooms and those kinds of gimmicks don’t mean anything in terms of the dramatic health hazards of secondhand smoke.”
Secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent, the risk of stroke by 20 to 30 percent and the risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In conjunction with the release of the ALA’s State of Tobacco Control report, Frankie Vigil, executive director of the Nevada chapter, said the state needs to close the gap.
“Nevada is missing a clear opportunity to save lives by not taking action to prevent and reduce tobacco use,” said Vigil, noting that the use of tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and little cigars is at an all-time high, particularly among young people.”
Because an overwhelming majority of adult Americans — about 85 percent — are now nonsmokers, according to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, it makes sense to restrict smoking, Frick said. He noted that more than 800 casino and gaming venues across the U.S. are 100 percent smoke-free because of state laws, and added that 20 states now require gaming venues to be entirely smoke-free.
“The gaming industry has invested many billions of dollars into smoke-free casinos, with many major gaming companies such as MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Penn National Gaming leading the curve with experience in the design, build and operation of such facilities,” he said.
Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said the trend is indeed toward providing more smoke-free options.
“Providing a great workplace environment is very important to (association) members … and (Nevada) resorts offer a wide range of nonsmoking amenities including hotels, casino areas, meeting spaces, spas, fitness centers and restaurants,” Valentine said.
“This industry has (also) invested heavily in new technology for filtration and air handling, which has greatly improved indoor air quality,” she added.
Bar owners who lacked the financial means to make such investments, though, felt stung by the Clean Indoor Air Act. They criticized the exemption as a competitive disadvantage for them, as smokers would be driven away from their businesses and into casinos, where they could both eat and smoke. The law did not allow food to be served at establishments where smoking was permitted, so many bars closed their kitchens to keep their smokers.
In 2011, the law was changed to allow bars to have both, so long as patrons under 21 years of age were prohibited from entering.
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While Griff’s has yet to offer gaming, Griffin admits that pool and smoking historically have gone hand-in-hand, although major changes have taken place since the turn of the century.
The Billiards Congress of America used to hold its national tournament at the Riviera. “When you’d put 5,000 pool players in the pool hall, the cloud of smoke was so thick you couldn’t breathe,” Griffin said. “About the year 2000, the BCA became the first major pool league to go completely nonsmoking for a national tournament, which was a huge statement. That first year was awkward, but since then, there’s been a movement, and now all the major tournaments are nonsmoking, which I think is just a sign of the times.”