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• Smoking ban exemptions are now the focus of criticism 

Steve Stenger, the County Council member who insisted that any ban include a casino exemption, said he expected the council to move next year to rescind it.

"With upwards of 65 percent of the people voting in favor of the ban, I think you can see the day coming to phase out that exemption," said Stenger, D-Affton. "Tuesday showed very clearly that most people do not want to be exposed to smoke in any public place."

Stenger predicted that the County Council would take action to eliminate the exemption shortly after the ban takes effect in 2011. If it chose, the council could change the ordinance on its own without submitting it to public vote again. . . .

The city and county exemptions drew attention on many fronts Wednesday.

Those who fought the bans said the casino exemption was unconstitutional, and could be used to invalidate the entire proposition.

At O'Connell's Pub off South Kingshighway, the talk was how to measure a bar's square footage so that it would be protected by the city's five-year exemption for bars under 2,000 square feet.

And in Maplewood, a restaurant owner who opposed the ban is adamantly against exemptions.

Bill Hannegan, an activist against both smoking bans, said opponents met Wednesday with lawyers to discuss ways to overturn them. . . .

And he said his group has discussed an initiative petition to address the most restrictive provisions of the city ban. His group, Keep St. Louis Free, views the city ban as more onerous than the county ban, which has the exemption for bars that make less than 25 percent of their revenue off food.

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• EDITORIAL: Pass the Atlantic City casino smoking ban 

The legislature, after allowing casinos to escape the statewide indoor smoking ban in 2006, has refused to close this loophole. Lawmakers continually have chosen casino balance sheets over the health of the average Joe. But this is a moral, not economic issue: What amount of money makes it acceptable to put people's lives at risk?

We know the answer: None.

And that's why there's a tobacco stain on New Jersey's soul.

The Atlantic City council has a second chance to do the right thing and pass a casino smoking ban immediately. . . .

Opponents of the ban insist gambling and drinking and smoking go together. Well, actually, they don't. Studies have found that the majority of gamblers don't drink and 82 percent of them don't smoke.

Through all of the debate, one argument remains indisputable: Second-hand smoke kills.

But in New Jersey, cash trumps cancer risks.

"A 100 percent smoking ban would be catastrophic," said Mark Juliano, CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts. "Right now, we can't face another negative."

Since when is saving lives a negative?

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• Strip resort sued over second-hand smoke  

A second Las Vegas Strip casino is being sued over allegations that the health of employees is being affected by second-hand smoke.

A suit seeking class action status to represent all affected workers was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by Wynn Las Vegas employee Kanie Kastroll against the casino resort and its parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd.

The suit was filed by law firms including KamberEdelson LLC of Chicago, which in July filed a similar suit against Harrah's Entertainment's Caesars Palace hotel-casino.

Attorneys for Harrah's and Caesars have not yet filed their answer to that complaint. That suit has also not completed the significant legal hurdle of being certified as a class action. . . .

The suit alleges exposure to smoke is causing eye irritation, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing, tightness in the chest, asthma, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins.

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• Atlantic City to debate casino smoking ban again  

"I like it the way it is now. If they banned smoking in Atlantic City, I would go to the Indian reservation casinos in Connecticut just to smoke," DePierro vowed as her husband, James, nodded his head in agreement.

A year after Atlantic City delayed a total smoking ban at the request of the powerful gaming industry, city officials are again debating whether the casinos should go smoke-free. City Council backed away from a ban last year amid warnings that smokers would take their business elsewhere, further depressing casino earnings in the soft economy.

But council members also promised then to revisit the issue in a year. Just as it was on Oct. 8, 2008 - when it voted 5-4 to scrap the smoking ban - council remains divided.

The timing of a new vote is unclear. On Friday, the City Clerk's Office released the agenda for the next council meeting on Wednesday and it did not include the smoking ban.

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• Continued smoking in reservation bars, casinos boosts business, raises questions 

ROCKY BOY -- Smoking and gambling have gone hand in hand for Deanna Standing Rock for years.

But when the statewide smoking ban went into full effect earlier this month, adding bars and casinos to the list of public places where smoking is not allowed, Standing Rock didn't fear an end to her smoke-and-slots routine. That's because she plays at a casino located on one of Montana's seven Indian reservations, where smoking is still allowed inside bars and casinos.

Reservations are exempt from the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act, although far-reaching smoking bans have been implemented by Montana's sovereign tribes. The act does apply to nontribal members who own bars and casinos on Indian reservations.

The exemption has created a competitive edge for businesses such as the Chippewa Cree tribe's Northern Winz Casino on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, according to casino officials. They are now marketing the casino as smoker friendly in order to lure customers away from bars and casinos located off the reservation.

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• Bingo fight lights up over smoking ban  

Bingo parlors on opposite ends of Richland County are suing each other, claiming their competitors are ignoring a county law that prohibits smoking.

The two - Carolina Gold Bingo on Decker Boulevard and Mr. Bingo on St. Andrews Road - have hired well-known lawyers, as well as private investigators to spy on each others' customers.

At the heart of the dispute is Richland County Council's indecision about how vigorously to enforce a law that has generated few reports of violations and carries just a $25 fine. . . .

The lengths to which the bingo parlors are going hints at the lucrative and competitive nature of the business.

The two parlors - among four total in Richland County - each grossed more than $700,000 last year. Carolina Gold was only open part of the year.

The operators don't keep all the profits, though.

Under state law, bingo games must benefit "fraternal, religious or charitable organizations," said Adrienne Fairwell, a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Revenue.

However, the state agency is not privvy to the individual contracts that set out how much of the net proceeds a promoter shares with a nonprofit group, she said.

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• Oneida Nation, banking on tax-exempt status, buys cigarette factory  

The Oneida Indian Nation, which sells $34 million of untaxed cigarettes a year, has expanded its tobacco operations into making its own cigarettes.

The nation last fall bought a cigarette manufacturing plant in Erie County for $6.6 million, according to documents the nation provided to the federal government. The nation plans to release the news of the purchase today.

Sovereign Tobacco produces two discount cigarette brands that sell for $30 a carton at the Oneida nation's SavOn stores and as little as $14.50 per carton online. A carton of taxed, name-brand cigarettes in non-Indian outlets can cost well over $60.

The nation runs Turning Stone Resort & Casino, a dozen SavOn stations, a gaming software company and five golf courses.

Niagara's Bob Hilburger, who runs the nation subsidiary that bought the plant, said the nation wants to diversify.

"The Oneidas from time to time would look to grow beyond the gaming business, and they use me to help them," . . .

By producing their own cigarettes, Calvin said, tribes could cut out the wholesalers who are licensed by the state.

"It may well be that the tribes are thinking that it would be more difficult for the state to enforce tax collection on those Native American brands," he said.

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• Casino revenue plummets; gaming lobbyists blame smoking ban  

Illinois casino lobbyists weren't blowing smoke when they said that a statewide smoking ban has cost the industry -- and government -- lots of money, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis have found.

They say state and local governments lost $200 million in taxes last year because of the ban.

That's more than a projected $150 million that state legislators hope to realize by privatizing lottery management and selling tickets online, and more than half of the $300 million in revenue the state projects could be raised by legalizing and taxing video poker.

Economists who studied casinos in Illinois and surrounding states found that attendance here went down by 9 percent while revenue plummeted by more than 20 percent, according to study results published last month in The Regional Economist, a federal reserve bank publication. . . .

After reviewing a copy of the study sent to her by The State Journal-Register, Drea via e-mail said that while there might be a revenue decline associated with fewer smokers in casinos, "it defies logic" to blame the smoking ban, as opposed to a tough economy, for plummeting revenue.

However, the study's authors said that neighboring states have also experienced hard times.

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• Secondhand Smoke in Pennsylvania Casinos: A Study of Nonsmokers' Exposure, Dose, and Risk  

Methods. I measured respirable suspended particles (RSPs), particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PPAHs), and carbon dioxide inside and outside casinos; measured changes in patrons' urine cotinine after casino visits; and assessed SHS impact on workers and patrons, using exposure-response models, air quality standards, and odor and irritation thresholds.

Results. PPAH and RSP concentrations in casinos were, on average, 4 and 6 times, respectively, that of outdoor levels despite generous ventilation and low smoking prevalence. SHS infiltrated into nonsmoking gaming areas. Patrons' urine cotinine increased 1.9 ng/mL on average after about 4-hour visits.

Conclusions. SHS-induced heart disease and lung cancer will cause an estimated 6 Pennsylvania casino workers' deaths annually per 10 000 at risk, 5-fold the death rate from Pennsylvania mining disasters. Casinos should not be exempt from smoke-free workplace laws.

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• Longtime dealer sues Caesars over second-hand smoke  

A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in Las Vegas Wednesday against Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Caesars Palace, alleging Caesars isn't doing enough to protect casino workers from second-hand tobacco smoke.

The lead plaintiff is Tomo Stephens, who says she was a blackjack dealer for about 20 years at Harrah's-owned Caesars on the Las Vegas Strip and quit her job June 16 on the advice of her doctor.

The federal lawsuit says pre-cancerous cells were found in her stomach and that over the years she was exposed to second-hand smoke causing irritation to her eyes, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing or tightness in the chest, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins.

The lawsuit seeks to represent as a class all former, current and future Caesars employees exposed to unsafe levels of second-hand smoke.

The lawsuit alleges that while Las Vegas competitors such as the Bellagio and Palazzo have taken significant steps to deal with second-hand smoke, about all that Caesars has done is make some of its poker rooms smoke-free.

"Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, Caesars Palace has failed to protect the health and welfare of many of its employees who must perform their jobs while breathing in second-hand smoke," the suit charges.

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• UPDATE 1-OPAP agents strike, say smoking ban hitting sales  

Agents for Greek betting firm OPAP (OPAr.AT), Europe's biggest, went on strike on Thursday over a tax on winnings and said a new smoking ban in public places in Greece had added to a fall in sales.

"There was already a drop due to the global downturn but with the smoking ban the fall came to 25-30 percent (year on year)," OPAP sales agents union head Kyriakos Toptsidis told Reuters.

The union, which represents about 5,300 retail outlets selling lottery cards and sports betting games across Greece, went on strike to protest a tax on betting winnings.

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• Tri-State asks Nitro to help overcome smoking ban 

Owners of Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center are planning an end run around Kanawha County's indoor smoking ban.

Dan Adkins, vice president of track owners Hartman & Tyner Inc., plans to meet with officials with the city of Nitro next week about smoking at Tri-State. The track lies inside Nitro city limits.

"We're going to take whatever remedy, legal or otherwise, to solve this problem," Adkins said Monday.

Revenue at Tri-State Racetrack is down by $15 million compared with last year, Adkins said. He and company officials blame most of the loss on a countywide smoking ban that went into effect in July 2008.

Nitro Mayor Rusty Casto plans to introduce an ordinance at a town council meeting July 21 that would allow both smoking and non-smoking sections at Tri-State.

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• Secondhand Smoke Threatens Casino Workers’ Health  

New research suggests that casino workers face a higher risk of heart disease and lung cancer because they work in buildings filled with tobacco smoke.

By one scientist’s calculation, six of every 10,000 nonsmoking casino employees in Pennsylvania will die each year because of exposure to secondhand smoke.

The estimate does not rely on the tracking of individual casino workers over time, nor does it compare them to workers who have not had smoke exposure. Still, the findings suggest a significant risk to the health of the workers, said study author James Repace, a Washington D.C.-area consultant who studies the effects of secondhand smoke.

Casino workers “are really the most exposed group in society now,” Repace said. “The only other group that’s exposed so much is bartenders,” but many states have banned smoking in bars and restaurants.

The Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute — which has studied the risk of secondhand smoke to flight attendants when airlines allowed smoking — funded the study. The casino findings appear online and in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

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• Hong Kong workers fume over smoking ban  

For everyone involved here -- from the staff ferrying free drinks and cigarettes to the players themselves -- the marriage between the Chinese gambling game and smoking is one that shouldn't be broken.

Nevertheless, it is about to be.

Hong Kong?s government is set to enforce a blanket smoking ban in public places from July 1, aimed at protecting workers in the city?s bars, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong parlours from second-hand smoke.

Yet many workers regard the legislation as a death-knell amid a recession that has pushed the city's unemployment rate up to 5.3 percent. Bars have reported a drop in business as the slowdown bites.

"With the financial crisis, swine flu and now the smoking ban, it?s a perfect storm of trouble for the entertainment sector in Hong Kong," said Lawrence Ho, who has run a bar here for 18 years.

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• Revenue drop for casinos not as bad as last year  

The downdraft Illinois' anti-smoking law may have had on casino revenues appeared to ease up during the first three months of this year, an industry trade group said Wednesday.

Revenues for Illinois' nine casinos fell by 9.3 percent from January through March of this year compared with the first quarter of 2008, the American Gaming Association reported. . . .

In a May report, the industry trade group showed casino revenues in Illinois dropped by a whopping 20.9 percent in 2008 compared with a year earlier, the sharpest decline in the country.

The AGA attributed that decrease largely to the impact of the state's no-smoking policy, which made cigarette smoking off-limits in casinos and other public indoor areas beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

"We believe the majority of decline now is the result of the economy," said Thomas Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association. "There is still some backlash from smoking, but we're seeing the numbers getting better."

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