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It's been about a month since the Montana Clear Indoor Act took effect in bars, casinos and restaurants across the Treasure State. According to a Billings gaming distributor, gambling revenues are down 16% to 18% across the state.
On October 1st, the Reno Club in Billings joined hundreds of others businesses in going smoke-free. Now that the smoke has cleared, businesses are taking a hard look at the bottom line.
"My gambling is down about 20% and that could be recession, it could be the weather, it could be just about anything," Reno Club owner John Blair said.
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The ban on smoking in taverns and casinos seems to be going smoothly with little problems in the bars, tobacco prevention specialist Jay Schuschke said Monday. "I cover Hill and Blaine counties, and we have not had any complaints as of yet," he said.
RONAN - Enforcement of Montana's Clean Air Act appears to be a little hazy on Indian reservations.
Tribally owned casinos are exempt from the indoor-smoking ban, while some enrolled tribal members who own reservation bars and casinos aren't enforcing the ban.
In the meantime, Rick and Vicki Wheeler, who are not members of the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes, recently received their first letter of complaint from the Lake County Health Department for not enforcing the smoking ban at their Ronan business, The Club, which is within the Flathead Indian Reservation.
"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," said Rick Weaver, who has owned The Club for 20 years. "This bar is my retirement -- do they want to take that away from me, too? It's racial discrimination."
Diana Schwab, the tobacco prevention coordinator in Lake County, agrees the law raises different issues on the state's reservations.
SWAT teams will not descend on The Club, the Ronan bar whose owner told the Missoulian this week he is not, nor will he, enforce in his business the statewide ban on smoking in enclosed public places that was extended to bars on Oct. 1.
The ban, says Diana Schwab, Lake County tobacco prevention coordinator, is a complaint-driven law.
If people file complaints about The Club or any other business in Lake County regarding non-enforcement of the smoking ban, she will follow the steps outlined in state law, in which educational and warning letters are sent after the first two complaints, and fines of $100, $200 and $500 can be imposed on the third, fourth, fifth and subsequent complaints within a three-year period.
If no one gripes, nothing happens.
It was almost a month ago Montana went smoke free as on October 1st, smoking was no longer allowed in bars and casinos.
They were the last businesses in Montana to go smoke free after a law was enacted in 2005 and they spent months getting ready to go smoke-free.
Some businesses have seen their worst fears have come true. The bartender is still pouring drinks at 'That Bar' in Great Falls, but Kelly Dunn says there are few customers to serve."
"Normally by this time of day, I've got probably ten to 12 people lined up at this bar and right now as it stands I have two in here."
Customers aren't staying as long or drinking as much and Dunn added that the regulars would rather drink at home than deal with smoking in the cold."
"My biggest fear was losing a lot of our regular customers and by the looks of it that's happening...And it's sad because we had a lot of good times in this bar." . . .
But Brick Sports bartender Michelle Gravlin has a different story to tell. "It's gone fine. We haven't had any big changes."
It used to be that when a customer came in and bought a retail bottle of beer to take home his family could smell the Tall Pine Lounge on him when he walked in the door.
That is no longer the case after the smoking ban in public spaces went into full effect last week. The Montana Clean Indoor Air Act of 2005 requires all enclosed public places and workplaces to be smoke free as of Oct. 1. Bars and casinos that have been exceptions to the law must also become smoke free.
Businesses are also required to post no-smoking signs that are clearly visible at all public entrances.
Tom Beaubien, owner of Tall Pine, said he is trying to look at the ban as a business opportunity; his bar just opened up to a whole new clientele that used to not come in because of the smoke.
Here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act has run into some hazy skies.
Tribally owned bars and casinos are exempt from the state's smoking ban. That means the Grey Wolf Peak Casino north of Evaro and the Kwa Taq Nuk Resort in Polson, owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, still offer both smoking and nonsmoking casino areas.
But here on the Flathead Reservation, some enrolled tribal members who own liquor licenses also allow smoking in their bars.
"The way I understand it, the state and health department won't pursue it if we allow it, because they have nowhere to take it," says Lori Peterson, an enrolled member of the tribes and owner of the Pheasant Lounge in Ronan.
Rick Wheeler's bar sits a block away, on the other side of Ronan's Main Street.
"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," says Wheeler, who is not a tribal member. If he enforces the smoking ban, Wheeler says, virtually all of them will simply cross the street to a bar where they can light up inside, and the business he's owned for 20 years will go belly-up.
State officials have stopped distributions of tobacco grant money to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa after an audit revealed problems with the tribe's accounting practices.
The Montana Department of Health and Human Services audit says lax oversight and record keeping allowed for "potential abuse" of a $180,000 annual tobacco use prevention grant.
Half the money was for tobacco programs for the tribe's 4,300 members scattered across Montana and surrounding states and provinces. The remainder was for similar programs for American Indians in Great Falls and Billings.
The agency's public health administrator, Jane Smilie, said the funding for the tribe's internal program could be restored if the tribe improves its accounting.
"We will review their response and determine if our auditors think what has been put in place is adequate," Smilie said.
In the meantime, the contracts for the Great Falls and Billings programs will be put out for bid.
The University of Montana is gearing up to become a tobacco-free campus by fall 2011 and it is not alone in its effort to ban tobacco products on school grounds — 172 other college campuses across the nation have done the same thing.
And not just colleges are taking such initiatives.
Designating tobacco-free grounds is becoming a “mega-trend,” said Clare Lemke, coordinator of the Montana Tobacco Free Medical Campus Project that helped four local hospitals go tobacco-free on Oct. 1.
“When I started this position in fall of 2007, there were three hospitals with tobacco-free campuses and by the end of November (there will be) 30,” Lemke said. “That’s just about half of the hospitals in the state.”
Along with the 172 tobacco-free university campuses nationwide, there are at least another 322 smoke-free campuses, said Julee Stearns, UM health promotion specialist and chair of the UM Tobacco Task Force that drafted the University’s tobacco-free plan. These tobacco-free university and hospital campuses serve as models for UM’s plan.
It's a niche market created by the last segment of Montana's Clean Indoor Air Act originally put in place four years ago. Across the state smoking is now prohibited in all indoor public places, including bars and casinos that had, up until Oct. 1, an exemption if they did not allow anyone younger than 18 to enter their establishments.
So it's not surprising that some businesses on the state's Indian Reservations, which are not subject to the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act, are now marketing to people who like to have a cigarette with their cup of coffee, meal or adult beverage or while gambling -- indoors. . . .
Unemployment on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation is about 50 percent. Do employees of casinos that allow smoking really have the option of looking for another job that does not expose them to secondhand smoke without facing significant obstacles, such as a longer commute?
Tribes are waging a battle on commercial tobacco use, cigarettes and spit tobacco, for a good reason. According to the Montana Department of Public Health and Hu-man Services, the prevalence of smoking among Native American adults was 55 percent in 2008 . . .
"It's up to the people to complain if they want to change it," said Theda Moorsette, the Chippewa Cree Tribe's tobacco prevention specialist. "It would be good for our health and youth."
Tribes wouldn't allow school personnel to expose pupils to secondhand smoke. Most ban smoking from tribal buildings and offices to protect workers.
So why then are the tribal members who work in casinos on reservations treated by a different standard?
It's time to speak up and complain.
Even though 94 percent of UM students surveyed said they don’t smoke on a regular basis, that’s still 6 percent that does. If that number can be applied to recent fall enrollment numbers at the University — 14,921 students — that would mean about 895 students would be affected by the ban as smokers. Some of them are probably freshman required to live in campus housing.
It’s fine to try to educate people about the negative effects of smoking and it’s good to have resources available to help people quit. But it’s too soon for a complete ban of tobacco products.
I don’t doubt that there are good intentions behind this policy or that it has the potential to do some good things for this campus. But because I remain troubled by its overbearing nature, I can’t bring myself to support it. For better or for worse.
Since the Montana Clean Air Act went into full effect Oct. 1, outlawing smoking in public indoor places including bars and casinos, the City-County Health Department in Great Falls has received three complaints of alleged violations at establishments in Cascade County.
The health department does not release the names of establishments that are the subject of complaints, spokeswoman Kate Marone said.
When the department receives a complaint, it first investigates to see if the complaint is valid. Then officials work with the establishment to make sure the owners and managers understand the act. The department also provides owners and managers with education on how to comply with the act.
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.
Butte bar and casino patrons don't appear to be avoiding their favorite watering holes despite the statewide smoking ban.
Jim Dodd Sr. has been a smoker for 30 years and an admitted creature of habit. But the law banning smoking in all bars and casinos, which went into effect Oct. 1, hasn't stopped him from making his regular stops at the Met Tavern, 1375 Harrison Ave.
"You come down here to see your friends and have a good time," he said Monday afternoon as he watched the Colorado Rockies on one of the bar televisions.
When the urge hits him to smoke, he steps outside like everyone else.
"I'm too old to change," the 55-year-old said.
Initial fears that the smoking ban would hurt the tavern and casino businesses so far appear unfounded, according to some.
The University of Montana is on its way to becoming a tobacco-free campus by fall 2011.
The UM president’s office endorsed a timeline for phasing in policy starting this semester, according to UM Executive Vice President Jim Foley. The first phase includes sending questionnaires to faculty and staff, because students were already surveyed. The ASUM Senate passed a resolution supporting the plan last Wednesday.
However, it’s not a “take it or leave it” plan, Foley said. The steps leading to completion in 2011 will give everyone the opportunity to talk about an issue that should be discussed, he said.
Julee Stearns, UM health promotion specialist and chair of the UM Tobacco Task Force that drafted the plan, said that as of Oct. 2, there are at least 322 smoke-free campuses and 172 tobacco-free campuses nationwide. Montana Tech will also be completely tobacco-free in July 2010. The tobacco-free plan, drafted at the request of UM President George Dennison, aims to ensure the campus environment is healthy and accessible for everyone, Stearns said.
Stearns said 76 percent of UM students surveyed reported that they encountered more second-hand smoke on campus than in any other location.