Bill would allow MGM National Harbor to open a cigar lounge in smoke-free Maryland

Publication Date: 2016-02-24

• Author:Michael Neibauer
• Publication:Baltimore Business Journal

An anti-smoking organization is raising hay over what it describes as a "hidden provision" within Maryland legislation that opens the door to cigar smoking at MGM National Harbor.

The bill in question, sponsored by the Prince George's County delegation to the House of Delegates, would authorize the county's Board of License Commissioners to award MGM National Harbor with entertainment concessionaire and entertainment facility licenses...

What has the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network up in arms is a provision it says has no place in liquor license legislation. Under the bill, the MGM National Harbor license "authorizes the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages ... in a lounge that is no more than 2,000 square feet in which the holder of the license may serve and sell cigars, for smoking in the lounge, and food."

"I'm not going to say people shouldn't be allowed to smoke cigars," said Bonita Pennino, Maryland government relations director with the cancer action network. "They shouldn't be allowed to smoke cigars in somebody's workplace. If you work in that cigar lounge, you don't get to leave. You're there for an eight hour shift. You're there all day long."...