One in three bingo halls are facing closure because of the smoking ban.

About 600,000 customers have stayed away – a 20 per cent drop in attendance figures – since the July 1 ban in England. Industry experts believe around 200 of the country’s 634 bingo clubs will have to shut – on top of 60 closures in the last year.

They warned the threatened closures would hit hundreds of communities. Bingo Association’s Paul Talboys said: “The fabric of whole neighbourhoods will change.”

Source: Sunday Mirror.  Link

KNOXVILLE (WATE) — According to the health department, the smoking ban law says that an establishment has to allow all smoking all the time, or never at all.

On Sunday nights, the Electric Cowboy has ‘College Night’ which is the only night those under 21 can enter and the only night it is smoke free.

The health department’s interpretation of the law says this is illegal. Van Veelen believes this is up for debate and will be debated in the next legislative session.

Van Veelen believes the law was written without thinking of consequences. Another unintended consequence is having to lay off those under 21 if the establishment allows smoking. He’s had to lose about ten employees and thinks this is another part of the law that needs to change.

(Once again, the nicotine nannies protect workers right out of a job.)

Source: wate.com. Link

KNOXVILLE (WATE) — Two weeks have passed since the statewide smoking ban went into effect and for some restaurants, like Charlie Peppers on Cumberland Drive, business has been shaky.

But manger Chad Hensley says he thinks their decision to allow smoking and go 21 and up on customers will pay off in the long-run.

For now, Hensley says he’s more preoccupied with hiring employees to replace the seven underage employees he lost.

All of them were under 21 and couldn’t work at Charlie Peppers anymore there since it now allows smoking.

“I lost a pretty good amount of very dedicated employees,” Hensley says.

One of the restaurant’s former cooks spoke with 6 News Wednesday, saying the law is unfair and he didn’t expect to lose his job.

“It’s rough when you lose your job any time, especially when you weren’t fired, you didn’t quit, and you weren’t ready to lose it,” says Andrew Sayne, 20. “I put my heart and soul into the job.”

(How dare he be ungrateful to the nicotine nannies who cost him his job. Doesn’t he know they’re doing it for his own good?)

Hensley says the restaurant made the decision to go 21 and up because Charlie Peppers has more of a night time bar atmosphere, and a good number of his patrons want to drink and smoke.

The UK’s casinos and bingo halls are suffering the fallout from the recently imposed indoor smoking ban. Profits are falling and share prices are sinking dismally.

The new law, introduced in July, which means smokers must go outside if they want to light up, causes gamblers to spend less time at the table and more time hanging around outside. Casinos and bingo halls are investing in outdoor areas, in a bid to keep their customers warm, happy and spending. Having to adapt, some bingo bosses have suggested ‘bingo gardens’ where patrons can continue to play outside whilst indulging in a cigarette. However, unpredictable English weather is likely to put paid to this idea.

Analysts say that smokers spend on average 10% of their playing time on cigarette breaks, and aside from the time lost, once they have left the table, they are less likely to return, after mulling over their losses. Whereas players used to use the slot machines in the breaks, they are now more likely to head outside for a smoke.

In the summer, Gala, Britain’s biggest bingo network, forecast the closure of around 7% of its 170 clubs, due to the predicted impact of the smoking ban. In September, Mecca Bingo announced it was cutting 200 jobs as it struggled to cope with falling profits.

Source: Casino Times. Link

The Rank Group, the owners of Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, has reported a 19% decline in its like-for-like revenues and blames the fall on the smoking ban and on the law’s effects on gaming terminals.

Link

We knew the pub would be in trouble when the smoking ban came in. As the cold spring wore on and the regulars huddled round the log fire in the front bar, Anne, the landlady, kept saying: “It’ll ruin me.”

Now it’s empty. The front bar is almost never used. Regulars lurk near the “smoking door” and the Sunday lunchers sit in the garden – unless it rains, which it’s been doing since July 1. Where are the non-smokers?

Anne: “To be honest, I don’t think non-smokers are pub-goers.”

Anne, whose takings have fallen by half since July 1, cannot afford to exploit her outdoor opportunity with solutions (decking, marquees, outside audio-visuals). It’s a rural local, for heaven’s sake.

Anne is not renewing her lease when it comes up next year. Is it the smoking ban? “That’s part of it. Anybody driving past looks in the front bar and probably thinks we’re closed. I reckon we’ve lost 25 grand this year. Cold, wet summer as much as the smoking ban.

The lease is up on February 18. On the 19th, the pub will close. Me, I don’t think Enterprise – or anybody else – will reopen it. This is not gastro-pub country. We’re bereft.

(These are excerpts from a long article that really captures the feel of what the UK is losing. We recommend reading the entire article.)

Source: The Telegraph. Link

Whitby mental health patients forced offsite, leading neighbours to complain about loitering

He’s 53, with sad eyes and not much to look forward to. One of his few pleasures in life is a coffee and cigarette.

But the Whitby Mental Health Centre, his home for the past 10 years, wants to deny him that in the interests of “recovering best health.”

Translation: no smoking anywhere in the hospital or its 32-hectare waterfront property.

“It’s very, very frustrating,” he says, cigarette in one hand, foam cup in the other, in a small, town-owned parking lot a five-minute walk away.

“They’re telling me to quit. I don’t want to. I’ve been smoking for 40 years.”

He says he makes the long walk across the grounds 20 to 30 times a day. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

The smoking ban, implemented last June, has raised the ire of area residents and the Whitby Yacht Club, whose driveway runs past the parking lot where patients and staff congregate.

They complain of litter, butts and public urination. Some are intimidated by the “crazies,” as one sailor described patients.

“It’s a little bit threatening when it’s a whole load of people loitering around out there,” says the club’s vice-commodore Jim McMaster, adding they have concerns over fire risks and their boats’ security.

“Something has to be done. I understand … that they don’t want people smoking but you don’t force them off your property and onto someone else’s because you can’t figure out how to deal with them.”

The ban, imposed on the hospital’s 330 in-patients, 1,000 staff members, outpatients and visitors, is part of their mission to help patients become healthy and reintegrate into the community, says president and CEO Glenna Raymond. She adds statistics are “staggering” for smoking-related illnesses in the mental health sector.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Raymond says of the no-smoking policy, put in place after months of study.

“But it was the right move to make.”

(Yeah, why should your mentally ill patients be allowed any comforts that aren’t politically correct?)

An “unintended consequence” was the stigma around mental illness that’s surfaced in the community, Raymond says. Patients may not be ready for independent living but they pose no threat and “there’s no reason to confine them.” They have as much right to smoke in the community as anyone, she says.

That stance angers Whitby Councillor Elizabeth Roy and the “numerous” residents who have complained about encounters with patients near their homes, in a park and along a waterfront trail. Their quarrel is with the facility, not its occupants, she says.

“The fault goes back to the hospital, which is pushing patients and staff away from the facility into the community,” says Roy. “The solution is to give them a designated area” as other health facilities do.

That won’t happen, says Raymond. While the hospital is “committed to being a good neighbour,” a smoking shelter would run “contradictory to the aims of the policy.”

(Her policy of being a sanctimonious nanny, no doubt.)

But one patient says it’s difficult to concentrate in his group therapy when he’s worrying about when he’ll get his next cigarette.

Then there’s the problem of the cigarettes themselves. “They’re confiscated if we have them in the hospital. We’re supposed to hide them outside, off the property.”

It all combines to make a difficult life that much more trying, says a heavy smoker.
“We just want to have a cigarette.”

(Does this strike anyone else as just being nasty for the sheer joy of it? Evidently Glenna Raymond, needs to feed her power trip on the backs of the mentally ill patients she’s supposed to care for, but obviously doesn’t care about.)

Source: The Star.com.  Link

KNOXVILLE (WATE) — A West Knoxville restaurant owner says lawmakers told him his cigar room was legal under the new smoking ban. But when the ban went into effect, health officials told him to shut it down.

In addition to the business he’s losing, Kalogeros also lost $70,000 building the room. He says he’s speaking with lawyers to see if there is any way he can recoup some of his losses. But health officials say there’s little hope of saving the cigar room.

Source: WATE.com Link

HAMILTON — Sizemore, owner of Rick’s Tavern & Grille in Fairfield, said Thursday he’s complying with the smoking law. He even built a $20,000 smoking area outside.

But business in May was down $32,000 from the year before, he said.

Health department officials offered empathy, but said they could do little to help.

Link

HAMILTON — Rick Sizemore told the Butler County Board of Health that lax local enforcement of Ohio’s smoking ban is giving his law-breaking competition an unfair advantage.

But business in May was down $32,000 from the year before, he said.

“People that I’m competing with are continuing to (allow smoking) on a daily basis,” he said, refusing to name names. “There’s no other factor involved in this.”

(But how is that possible, if, as the nannies claim, smoking bans are good for businesses. Could it be that they’re…lying? Naw, not them.)

Source: Journal News. Link.

James Doolin says he’s abiding by the smoking ban and he’s lost 30% of his bingo customers as a result. What’s eating at him more than the ban is the fact other bingo parlors appear to be a little lax in their enforcement. According to the public records we requested, he may have a point.

“It’s okay for them to say that now. And it’s okay for this judge to sit on the bench and wait until Christmas, but what about our charities? What about these charities that can’t make it?” asks Doolin.

Source: Wave3.com. Link

ALMOST 70 per cent of North West councils have suffered a surge in cigarette litter on their streets since the smoking ban was introduced.

That’s according to Keep Britain Tidy, which today revealed the amount of cigarette ends blighting our streets shot up by 43 per cent since the start of the ban.

Link

As of the first quarter 2007 the Colorado smoking ban has imposed at least $16.8 million in economic damages on bars and taverns in the state, 6.4 percent of previous revenues, and many of our members are experiencing profit declines in the range of fifteen to forty percent,” said Allen Campbell, Senior Vice President of the Coalition.

Source: Associated Content. Link

The Colorado Coalition for Equal Rights on Monday denounced the state’s ban on smoking in public places, saying that data from the state’s hurting tavern and bar industry gives the lie to the efficacy of the measure.

As of the first quarter 2007 the Colorado smoking ban has imposed at least $16.8 million in economic damages on bars and taverns in the state, 6.4 percent of previous revenues, and many of our members are experiencing profit declines in the range of fifteen to forty percent,” said Allen Campbell, Senior Vice President of the Coalition.

The Colorado law met with very mixed reviews, including a lot of hostile ones, when it was first enacted, especially in light of the fact that if you work from home, your home office is considered a “public building” and if you’re a smoker you are thus restricted in what you can do in a certain part of your own home.

Source: Associated Content. Link

Smokers are staying away from bingo halls in their droves.

BINGO halls across South Wales are feeling the drag of a major profit slump six months into the smoking ban.

And managers are bracing themselves for more dwindling revenue when the colder weather soon kicks in.

The serious profit slide has been caused by smokers avoiding the big cash-generating games to catch up on a quick puff outside the buildings.

The numerous bingo halls the Echo contacted all reported a drop of between 15 to 20 per cent in revenue and workingmen’s clubs and associations where a pint and a fag go hand in hand have also said the same.

The study revealed 62 per cent of bingo players are smokers and that 33 per cent of them will play less often while 21 per cent will stop playing in clubs altogether.

Link

The pub trade in Telford has been virtually destroyed since the introduction of the nationwide smoking ban in July, licensees claim.

The crisis in Telford is reflected nationally, with the pub trade claimed to be in meltdown as one in five tenants declare their intention to quit.

“I went to five pubs in Dawley and they would normally have been packed with people enjoying a drink and a smoke,” he said. “Three pubs had just two people in the bar, one had four in and the other had six in.”

Link

At Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, a patient wheeled his IV out to the sidewalk by the parking lot to smoke. Another smoker crossed a busy interstate off-ramp to smoke on the overpass.

Source: Today’s THV. Link

Since the smoking ban came into force on July the 1st, smokers are spending over 20 extra hours outside each month so putting themselves at greater risk of skin damage.

Research from Boots shows that an alarming 60% of British sunburn cases occur on home turf, a figure set to rise with the smoking ban taking more people outdoors.

To help prevent the Smoker’s Burn phenomena, the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer has teamed up with the Laurel Pub Company to offer £300,000 worth of free sun cream to punters across the UK.

Since the smoking ban came into force on July the 1st, smokers are spending over 20 extra hours outside each month so putting themselves at greater risk of skin damage.

Research from Boots shows that an alarming 60% of British sunburn cases occur on home turf, a figure set to rise with the smoking ban taking more people outdoors.

(I consider this a very silly story, and published it here just for fun. It does, however, show how nannies of all flavors freak out at the tiniest increase in any risk.)

Source: GMTV. Link

Peggy Silvasy, a Delafield Road resident, on Monday signed a petition to lobby for a smoking shelter on the St. Margaret campus.

“They’re in front of the house all hours of the night,” said Silvasy. “Let them go back to the hospital and smoke.”

All 18 UPMC facilities on July 1 went smoke-free, clearing the campus of smoke, ashtrays and cigarette butts scattered about. That sent nicotine addicts into the neighboring community, walking the streets to have a puff.

At the same time, it enraged residents who now say they are being suffocated by strangers and their second-hand smoke.

(I understand them being angry about cigarette butt litter, but “suffocated” by someone smoking on the street? Hyperbole, anyone?)

Link

Berlin – A smoking ban that began Saturday on trains operated by Germany’s main railway company, Deutsche Bahn, may trigger a crisis, with toilets constantly occupied by surreptitious smokers, a passenger lobby warned Saturday.

“Heavy smokers will head for the toilets,” he said in an interview. “That is what happened when the smoking cars were abolished (on July 1) on regional trains. You have to accept that. It’s a fact whether you like it or not.”

Naumann predicted that about half the people who have used railway smoking cars to date would stop traveling by rail and go by road.

Link

MIDDLETOWN — It’s been eight months since a law went into effect banning smoking in most Ohio public indoor places. Some businesses say the ban has beefed up business, while others say it hurts.

At Jay’s Lakeside Inn on Tytus Avenue, not too many patrons were at the bar at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“This bar used to be packed this time of day,” said owner Jimmy D. Valentine.

“Guys who used to come in and drink two or three bottles of beer, now they go home and drink,” he said.

Valentine blames the smoking ban for losing $4,000 a week. He’s cut positions and pay to keep his business afloat, he said.

{The article then tells how it appears to be good for a bowling alley. So this reporter found two whole businesses to report on. Wow, that’s some impressive reporting.}

Link

DISGRUNTLED pub landlords in Nuneaton are set to challenge the government over the new smoking laws.

They say the smoking ban is doing more harm than good – and is threatening Britain’s pub culture.

He said: “It is causing a mass of problems – noise, mess, glass and bottles on the street, crowds of people drinking outside pubs rather than inside, and many other issues.”He said: “Noise is a big problem, because the doors are onstantly open there’s noise from inside and outside the pub.

Mess on the streets is another problem.

Mr Burlingham said: “At least inside the pub you can keep emptying ashtrays to keep the place clean.

“When you go outside at the end of the night, it looks like all the ashtrays have been emptied in one place.”

He said pub landlords feel the ban is changing the British way of life.

“Where pubs have created designated smoking areas, people are being herded into one place to smoke – but non-smokers are joining them, leaving the pubs half empty.

“Like it or not, Britain has a pub culture.

Source: Coventry Telegraph. Link

The smoking ban has already produced some surprising consequences. Take smells. Tobacco smoke may have been unpleasant but it masked a myriad odours. Since the ban, hundreds of pubs have been forced to steam-clean carpets stiff with years of beer spillage and other deposits. Nightclubs are now pumping perfume into their air-conditioning systems to mask the body odour given off by dancers.

There is a topsy-turvy feeling to many British pubs today, with scores of people crowding outside while bar rooms lie empty – even in cool weather.

In Ireland, which pioneered the smoking ban, the effects were far worse. Hundreds of pubs closed, particularly in rural areas.

Some pubs have gone already. Deejay Royall spent thousands of pounds transforming the interior of The Bush, in Wigan. He decided to pre-empt the ban and steal a march on rivals by prohibiting smoking from February. The result was a catastrophic fall in customers.

“People started to go to other pubs that hadn’t introduced the smoking ban, and then, when it came in last month, they stopped going out altogether. They are staying at home, buying cheap booze from the supermarkets and sitting in with their friends, smoking their heads off.”

Paul Jones, the landlord of the New Inn in Lower Cwmtwrch, in south Wales is another victim. “I’ve sold my lease because I can’t continue,” he laments. “About 40 per cent of our trade was cut by the smoking ban.”

Unless smoking in the open air is banned, Britain had better get used to night-time crowds. Terry Archer, the manager of the Lamb and Flag in London’s Covent Garden, has no option but to let his customers drink on the street.

Source: Tellegraph UK. Link

SMOKERS who are forced to pop outside pubs for a puff because of the smoking ban could be breaking street drinking laws, it has been claimed.

The new ban has also created a nuisance for people living near town centre pubs, who have complained about groups of smokers congregating on the streets.

People living in the town’s historic core said their lives had been blighted by smokers noisily congregating outside neighboring pubs with drinks in hand, which could break street drinking laws.

Source: EADT. Link

Smokers are staying away from bingo halls in their droves. Gavin O’Connor investigates how the smoking ban is hitting the bingo hall tills

BINGO halls across South Wales are feeling the drag of a major profit slump six months into the smoking ban.

And managers are bracing themselves for more dwindling revenue when the colder weather soon kicks in.

The serious profit slide has been caused by smokers avoiding the big cash-generating games to catch up on a quick puff outside the buildings.

The numerous bingo halls the Echo contacted all reported a drop of between 15 to 20 per cent in revenue and workingmen’s clubs and associations where a pint and a fag go hand in hand have also said the same.

The company set up in the town exactly 11 years ago this month.

Kelly said when interval of the paper games takes place at 8pm, there’s a mass exodus of smokers through the door before an 8.15pm resumption.

Kelly’s friend, Alison Griffiths, 31, of Cherry Grove, Gurnos, is one of the smoking-ban casualties.

She stopped playing three months ago because of the new law.

She said: “Everything is interrupted now and you can’t enjoy it the same because it’s a different experience.

“I think a lot of people feel the same.”

South Wales’ biggest bingo operator Castle Bingo refused to comment in any way on the smoking ban but managers at competing clubs say the issue is very real and worsening.
St Minver, which operates the world’s largest bingo network, carried out a survey of 3,000 UK bingo players to find out their attitudes towards the ban.

The survey found internet gaming services would experience a boom with more and more smokers putting their feet up at home, lighting up and clicking online.

The study revealed 62 per cent of bingo players are smokers and that 33 per cent of them will play less often while 21 per cent will stop playing in clubs altogether.

Just 14 per cent of smokers said they will kick the habit so they can continue playing with 63 per cent of smokers saying they will increase the amount they spend playing online as a result of the ban.

Mambha Param, who has been manager at Riva Bingo in Splott for more than a year but involved with the industry for nearly two decades, said it was a depressing time for the bingo industry and takings at his hall were down about a fifth.

“We’ve been struggling really badly.

Workingmen’s clubs are trying different methods to combat the revenue slide.
John Gould, steward at Cilfynydd Constitutional Club, said: “The smoking ban has certainly had an effect.

“In the last couple of weeks, we have put an outside smoking area in and that’s helped.

“We had a few in for the rugby games recently but after an hour, they bought some cans and went home to watch so they could smoke as well.

Pat Grabham, stewardess at the Royal British Legion in Bridgend for 25 years, said the end of the summer season spelled frostier times at the till.

“So far we’ve been lucky because the Crown (adjacent pub) has closed – the tenants were smokers and they decided to finish. We’ve picked up some of their custom and we’re putting some money away to cope with what’s going to happen in the winter. It’s not something we’re looking forward to.”

Source: icWales.co.uk. Link