A new strategy has emerged in the battle to ban smoking in casinos: the shareholder vote. Shareholders at Boyd Gaming, Bally’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment will put on the ballot at the respective casino companies proposals to force them to study the costs associated with permitting smoking indoors — and whether going smoke-free could save money. The proposals are sponsored by Trinity Health, a nonprofit health care network, and the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Trinity Health, based in Livonia, Michigan, has used its shareholder status to fight for various health initiatives despite the fact that it owns just a tiny fraction of these companies. For example, public records show Trinity owns just 440 shares of Bally’s stock, or about 0.001% of the company. Boyd, Bally’s and Caesars fought to keep the proposals out of the proxy materials distributed to shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission denied the casinos’ requests, and the proposals as well as the…
