Smoking ban will crimp charitable gambling
For example, a survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association during the first month of the province’s ban that took effect Oct. 1, found New Brunswick’s smoking ban was having a negative impact on establishments with bars, pubs, taverns, legions and night clubs. In this survey, 71 percent of respondents reported sharp declines in liquor sales. In small businesses the effect was pronounced, with pubs, taverns and bars reporting that liquor sales fell almost 14 percent from the same time a year earlier. At legion clubs, the survey found, the decline was almost 19 percent.
Estimates range as high as 60 percent for the number of bingo players who smoke. Crary and Jim Newcomer, commander of VFW Post 1296 predict that once the smoking ban goes into effect, bingo will die as a source of charitable funds in Bloomington and player will migrate to the Indian casino at Mystic Lake. For the VFW, which rents the attached space next to its club for use as a bingo hall, that could mean as much as $182,000 in lost revenue.
What do losses like that mean to the community? Steve Enebo, a VFW trustee, and Patty Gustner, club manager for American Legion Post 550, rattled off a number of contributions to veterans organizations and to active service men and women and their families — everything from washers, dryers and television sets for the VA medical center to “care packages” for military personnel to Cub Foods certificates for military families to honor guards for funerals to a hospice suite at the VA medical center.
But then the self-righteous will be able to drink and dine without the annoyance of other people’s bad habits. What is value of an American flag on the coffin of a war veteran compared to a benefit like that?
Soruce: Pioneer Press. Link Expired.
