Nicotine Nannies claim smoking bans are good for business. But if that were the case, could this list exist, and could it be so huge? (Please note, this is only a small sample of articles available on the subject.)
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Colorado casino revenues in April fell for the fourth straight month since the smoking ban took effect in January, dropping 7.1 percent from March and down 12.5 percent from April, 2007.
It was the second-biggest year-to-year decrease ever, behind March.
In Cripple Creek, revenue fell 6.4 percent to $10.7 million in April, off 13.3 percent from
April, 2007.
Cripple Creek casinos have brought in a total of $42.6 million in 2008, off 14.7 percent from this point in 2007.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois casino officials continue to blame the state’s indoor smoking ban as riverboat gambling revenues have fallen for the fourth straight month, a report shows.
Each of the state’s nine riverboat gambling sites took in less money in April than they did in the same month last year, for an average loss of about 19 percent, according to the Illinois Gaming Board’s monthly report. Each casino also saw its revenues and attendance drop from March to April.
Revenue drops between April and the same month last year range from a nearly 27 percent drop in Alton to a 5 percent decrease in East St. Louis. Casino Rock Island posted a loss in the same period of 17 percent. Metropolis showed a 25.5 percent loss. The Empress Casino in Joliet lost about 26.5 percent in revenue over last April and Harrah’s Casino in Joliet lost almost 18 percent.
Alatus Management, a Minneapolis-based developing company, purchased the building a year and a half ago. After spending 27 years in its current location, it was the decision of Grandma’s corporate office to close the restaurant at the beginning of this summer.
Peterson said she is disappointed that the restaurant is closing because she is finishing finals and now has to find another job.
The president of Grandma’s Corporation, Brian Daugherty, said legislation like the smoking ban has deteriorated the state of hospitality jobs in Minneapolis.
However, there turned out to be an unintended consequence. Cast outside to huddle in alcoves, crouch under awnings, and shiver in the rain, Huntington smokers have to do something with the remnants of their last drag.
Before the new ordinance hustled smokers outside, there were ashtrays inside. Now, even the most environmentally sensitive of smokers revert to a familiar strategy: drop butt to sidewalk, grind with foot, and walk away. For affected merchants, it is an extra burden to clean up the mess that falls onto the gray area (literally) of city sidewalks.
Charity bingo games are being hurt by bans on indoor smoking, with attendance dropping as patrons turn to casinos where they can still light up while playing, the New York Times reported April 24.
Charity gambling revenues fell 13 percent after Minnesota adopted a statewide indoor-smoking ban, with the smoking prohibition blamed for half of the decline. Bingo players who once flocked to the American Legion post in Fergus Falls, Minn., now go to casinos or cross the border to North Dakota, where veterans’ groups are exempt from the state’s smoking ban. “It’s had a profound effect on us here,” said Charlie Lindstrom of the American Legion post. “We’ve sponsored several baseball teams here in the past, but we can’t give as much now because the smoking ban has really reduced our revenue.”
Charity officials in California, New Jersey, New York, and Washington also report that smoking bans have hurt attendance and revenues on bingo nights. Some say that smokers typically outnumber nonsmokers three to one at bingo games, and despair of finding nonsmoking players to replace the departed smokers.
In Minnesota, which adopted a statewide ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces in October, revenue from all charity gambling dropped nearly 13 percent in the last quarter of 2007, compared to the same quarter the year before, according to state officials. More than half of the drop — the equivalent of about $100 million annually — was attributed to the new law, they said.
On a good night, Mr. Lindstrom said, bingo at the post used to attract 50 to 75 players. Nowadays it is more like 30 or 40.
“It’s had a profound effect on us here,” Mr. Lindstrom said. “We’ve sponsored several baseball teams here in the past, but we can’t give as much now because the smoking ban has really reduced our revenue.”
Still, revenues are down. In 2006, the bingo operation at the children’s center, which then belonged to Big Brothers Big Sisters, generated about $325,000 a year, after expenses, and employed 17 people. A year later, under the auspices of the center, it produced $150,000 and employed 13 people.
Washington used to be home to 100 bingo halls that raised money for charity. Now there are fewer than 20.
Punch Taverns Plc, the largest U.K. pub landlord, said first-half profit declined 24 percent after the company sold outlets, a smoking ban kept drinkers at home and consumer spending slowed.
The company had never posted a first-half profit decline since its 2002 initial share sale. Rivals Enterprise Inns Plc and J.D. Wetherspoon Plc have also suffered since England banned smoking at bars and other public places in July.
Punch said today it has reduced the number of pubs it owns by 9 percent to about 8,450 since the first half of last year.
Sixty-four per cent of pubs in England are losing trade since the smoking ban was introduced, according to a survey published by YorView on behalf of pro-choice group Freedom to Choose. Of those establishments, 98% blame the smoking ban for some or all of the loss of trade.
Many landlords report that they have cut staffing levels or opening hours. One landlord commented “the smoking ban is just driving people out of pubs.”
Godfrey Bloom MEP, author of the foreword to the report, said: “With over 20 pubs a week closing, I feel a major cultural platform is being removed from the British people.”
Mick Hudson, treasurer of Seaton Carew Social Club, said: “We are £18,000 down on beer sales in the last six months – and we are one of the clubs that is just about coping.
“When you look at the membership, our figures have dropped from about 450 to around 300 in the last year, so we have lost a third of the members.
“People can buy cheap drink in the shops and stay at home, they don’t want to be standing outside in the cold, smoking. When the members drop, there is a knock-on effect everywhere. The money over the bar drops, we have to put prices up, we don’t make enough to cover the costs of putting entertainment on and so on.
With memberships in decline, once-busy clubs are closing as owners struggle to break even.
But the clubs are not as crowded as you might expect. In fact, if you can find one still open, you should be able to breeze in for a frame pretty much any time.
Club owners warned this week that traditional snooker and pool halls across the country are shutting up shop after a downturn in trade. Many believe the decline is an unforeseen by-product of the smoking ban, now nearly one year old.
Kentish Town Snooker in Holmes Road – once thriving with 18 tables across two floors – closed last year, and next to disappear of the map is the Camden Snooker Club in Delancey Street, Camden Town.
It faces demolition this summer after its regulars were unable to convince a planning inspector – despite a 500-strong petition – that there was enough interest to save it from the bulldozer.
“We have just found out that 50 clubs have closed in the past two years.”
“The whole snooker scene is quieter these days. It is definitely much quieter since the smoking ban. There are fewer young people too.
DENVER — Revenues at Colorado casinos took their biggest hit in year-to-year comparisons since the inception of the statewide smoking ban in January.
According to the Colorado Division of Gambling, casinos made $63.3 million in adjusted gross proceeds in March, down 15.2 percent from $74.5 million in March 2007.
Revenues for January were down 3.6 percent and 10.1 percent in February as compared to last year.
Kevin Young has been a bartender at A.C.’s Bar & Grill on King Street for over a decade. He is a non-smoker who has worked in a smoking environment for most of his adult life, until now. Since the smoking ban went into effect, Young has consistently worked eight hours longer than he used to each week and earns roughly $200 dollars less each week. Visiting my friend Kevin at work in the early evening is much easier these days, because the ban has literally cut his bread-and-butter happy-hour shift in half. He says, “Bring back the smokers.”
His boss agrees. Says A.C.’s owner Jim Curley, “Profits in 2007 were down 80 percent compared to 2006, and that’s with the smoking ban being in effect for only half a year.” Jim admits there are other factors for the loss, but the smoking ban is unquestionably the “primary factor.”
Frankly speaking, more than a few experts agree that former Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s contention that exposure to secondhand smoke is as damaging as inhaling a pack-a-day ranks right up there with President Bush’s assertion that Saddam Hussein had WMDs.
As I write this commentary, I’ve actually been sitting in A.C.’s, simultaneously gabbing with Kevin behind the bar who has had only one other customer for the last hour — and that customer just went outside to smoke. It wouldn’t have bothered Kevin or me in the least if he had remained in the bar to enjoy his cigarette, but the government has already made that decision for us. As a grown man, it’s a bit offensive. As an American, it’s a little disheartening. And as a citizen, it’s ridiculous.
There was a time in this country when most Americans would have agreed, even those who hated smoking,
believing that government should have reasonable limits. But in an increasingly unreasonable world, such arbitrary power promises to become increasingly limitless, undermining and overtaking even the most basic American notions of property and principle.
A couple say their home next to a village pub has been “blighted” by the smoking ban and are claiming up to £50,000 for the effect on its value.
Neil and Rachel Mutter moved out of the one-bedroom property behind the Silverton Inn, in Silverton, Devon, claiming “stress and exhaustion”.
Their home, The Old Lodge, can only be reached via a partially covered yard beside the pub – which landlord Shane Radmore turned into a smoking area when the new smoking law came into effect last summer.
But when they decided to leave their home and put it on the market for £185,000 they claimed they were unable to sell it because of the situation which followed the smoking ban.
Mr and Mrs Mutter, who moved out to live with relatives, have now made a county court claim for up to £50,000 for the “diminution in value” of their property.
The couple could not be contacted today, but in a county court statement Mrs Mutter said after the smoking law came into effect, up to 15 people gathered in the yard to smoke.
That happened throughout the pub’s opening times and sometimes past midnight, she said.
To get to their home they had to negotiate a crowd of people, around furniture and a cloud of smoke.
Mrs Mutter aid in her statement that they finally moved out because of the “noise, smell, cigarette butts and smoke”.
The dire financial state of many pubs is revealed in a survey of 500 tenants carried out by the MA.
The most startling statistic is that 10% of pubs are operating at a loss or zero profit.
Also, as many as 78,000 full and part-time jobs may have been lost if the survey results replicate the situation across the 50,000 pubs in England and Wales.
The survey found the average profitability of a pub had slumping by almost 15% in the past year to £24,180.
Of equal concern is that more than half of survey respondents (54%) predicted profitability falling even farther over the coming year.
Nearly six out of 10 pubs (57%) had been forced to shed staff, with an average of 2.75 redundancies per pub.
Pubs where trade was down reported falls ranging between 5% and 40% with the average drop being 18%.
The figures indicate that claims about pubs being repatriated by non-smokers after the ban were over-optimistic.
A ban on smoking in American bars has increased the number of accidents apparently caused by drinking and driving.
US jurisdictions with a smoking ban have seen, on average, a nearly 12 percent rise in the number of drink-related accidents at the wheel, researchers say in a paper published in the Journal of Public Economics.
Researchers found that instead of heading to their local bar for a drink and a puff, smokers ventured farther afield in search of a place where lighting up is still allowed.
They may not be drinking more than before but they are certainly driving more – and that’s what is increasing the risk of a crash.
“Our evidence is consistent with two mechanisms — smokers searching for alternative locations to drink within a locality and smokers driving to nearby jurisdictions that allow smoking in bars.”
Affirming what American Legion hall operators and mom-and-pop bar owners had warned, a new report shows that Minnesota’s statewide ban on smoking appears to have cut into charitable gambling revenues from bar-game pull tabs and bingo.
Gross receipts from charitable gambling were down 12.8 percent in the last three months of 2007, which correlates with when the statewide smoking ban took effect. Even taking into account a weakening economy, the ban is likely to be responsible for a decline in gross receipts of 7.5 percent to 8 percent, or a loss equal to $95 million to $105 million a year, the report noted.
The nearly 13 percent drop represents the largest decline in receipts since lawful gambling was first regulated in the state in 1985, said the report released Monday by the State Gambling Control Board, which
regulates the industry.
Charitable gambling plays a unique part in the fabric of Minnesota life. The state’s charitable gambling industry is by far the nation’s largest, with $1.2 billion in gross receipts a year. It funds such nonprofit organizations as youth sports, veterans groups and volunteer firefighting organizations. There are more than 1,400 licensed charity organizations and 3,000 locations where charitable gambling takes place.
Charitable gambling officials predict revenue declines of 16 percent to 18 percent through this year. Anticipating the effect, the industry has been pushing for several pieces of legislation that would give them more flexibility in their operations.
Wilson said that many organizations terminated their licenses because of funding problems last year and that the number is likely to increase this year.
St. Paul, Minn. — The state Gambling Control Board said pull-tab sales in bars were down nearly 13 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007. That’s a $40 million decrease in receipts from the same period the
previous year.
The number of visitors to a Hounslow bingo hall are down since last year’s smoking ban, bingo bosses have said.
Gala Bingo, in Staines Road, attributed losses of 30 per cent to the legislation banning smoking in public places, which came in to effect in July last year.
Surrender Kumar who has worked at the hall for 18 years, said: “The drop in the number of customers has forced us to stop trading on Sunday afternoons.”
The period 2004 to 2005 {before the ban} showed a 24 per cent increase in trade.
Helen Spicer, from Mintel, said: “The smoking ban has meant that many players simply stay away from bingo halls, or if they do go, they head out during the intervals for a quick cigarette.
“If the industry doesn’t come up with new ideas, British bingo could soon be a thing of the past.”
The Laurel Pub Company, owner of some of the country’s best-known high street bar brands, has collapsed. The development comes as breweries and pub chains blame the ban for encouraging smokers to stay at home rather than visit their local.
Some 388 pubs were placed in administration this week, though a rescue deal orchestrated by the company’s colourful owner, the Iranian property investor Robert Tchenguiz, will ensure the brands survive.
According to the British Beer and Pubs Association, the smoking ban in England and Wales combined with the credit crunch and a decline in drinking are responsible for closing pubs at their fastest rate in history – 27 a week.
The Massive Pub Company, which owned the Tup chain of pubs in London and the Sports Café chain, have both been placed in administration, while Regents Inns, owner of the Walkabout chain, has been forced into the sale of 94 bars.
In the past two months, Marstons, Greene King, Fuller, Smith and Turner and Wetherspoons have all announced their profits have been hit by the ban on smoking in public.
The Government outlawed lighting up in restaurants, bars and other public spaces on 1 July last year.
Publicans installed awnings and patio heaters to encourage smokers to go to the pub. However, commentators say that has failed to prevent the ban hitting the £15bn-a-year industry, with traditional “wet-led” local pubs the worst affected. Mark Brumby, a drinks analyst with Blue Oar Securities, estimated that the smoking ban had cost between 3 and 4 per cent of sales – or about £600m.
The collapse of the Laurel Pub Chain on Thursday indicated the impact of the smoking ban was spreading to suburban locations.
According to The Publican, the remaining 90 loss-making pubs in administration – five Slug and Lettuce, 11 Ha Ha, 40 Yates and seven Litten Tree – owe £8.6m in unpaid rent.
The pubs have now, in effect, been cut adrift from Mr Tchenguiz’s empire, with the expected loss of about 800 jobs.
{In Europe many marijuana smokers mix their pot with tobacco. In a perfect example of the absurdity of SHS hysteria, people who smoke pure cannabis can stay in the shop, but those who mix it with a bit of tobacco have to do it in a special area where staff is prohibited from working.}
Dutch health minister Ab Klink said visitors to coffee shops will be free to smoke marijuana as long as it is not mixed with tobacco, after a smoking ban affecting all restaurants and bars goes into effect on July 1.
Coffee shops also will be allowed to set up separate smoking areas for customers who want to smoke marijuana and tobacco, although staff will not be allowed to serve or do other work inside those areas.
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) – The Casino Queen in East St. Louis is reporting that its business is down, and executives are blaming Illinois’ smoking ban.
Initially, the $92 million new casino,which opened last summer, saw revenues increase from the smaller boat,but business has declined since January 1st when the state’s ban on smoking in public places took effect.
Casino manager tom Monaghan says the drop in business has been devastating. He says because of the smoking ban, he fears gamblers are going to new nearby competing casinos across the river in Missouri, where gamblers still can smoke.
Theater night protests are a challenge to a mean-spiritied, shortsighted law.
Your March 16 editorial panned our Theater Night performances in bars as “a clever but wrongheaded protest” against Minnesota’s smoking ban and sniffed that this is a medical, not economic, issue. We disagree. Your editorial focused on physical health and made no room for mental health.
After the smoking ban took effect Oct. 1, many small bars, Legions and VFW posts experienced a precipitous drop in income. Bar owners laid off waitresses they had known since childhood. Bartenders quit school after losing hours and tips. Former customers retreated to ice shacks
on frozen Minnesota lakes to drink and smoke alone.
Public health is more than physical health — clean air and pink lungs. It is also about mental health — keeping company and green wallets. People who drink and smoke alone, who lose their jobs and businesses do not live as well or as long. They need help, not ridicule. These people are socially isolated and financially stressed. Social and financial health deserves to be part of our public health
discussion.
Public health pundits grumble that Theater Night disrespects the law and violates its “spirit.” But this law is mean-spirited and disrespects our veterans and small-bar owners. It makes no accommodation for them.
Last spring, the veterans and small bar owners worried they would lose customers. The Legislature assured them they would see more customers when their businesses were smoke-free, a rosy prediction that turned out wrong.
Theater Night is a blessed respite from the economic desert in which some of our small bars were dying. We now have time to address the mistaken assumptions of last spring. We recommend two healthy accommodations for our veterans and small bar owners.
First, our veterans deserve an exemption. They performed valiantly overseas and continue to perform for their communities through charitable giving. But their revenues dried up after Oct. 1. Granting them an exemption will restore those revenues and their charitable giving.
Second, the smoking ban lets scientists study the effects of tobacco smoke as long as their laboratories are ventilated at the rate of 60 cubic feet of air per minute per person. This is a safety standard that our small bar owners are willing to adopt, even at great cost. Granting such an exemption will give them a chance of survival.
Some may be upset by our approach. But all we ask is to be heard on the subject of mental health as an integral component of public health. Until that day, our show will go on.
A pub is closing down on Easter Monday due to falling trade following the ban on smoking.
The bar, in Chapel Road, is one of several Yates ear-marked for closure around the country.
Owners, the Laurel Pub Company, which owns more than 400 pubs and restaurants nationwide, said: “We are closing due to the affect of the smoking ban and difficult trading conditions.”
The company says it will be helping the 12 staff to find new jobs. The spokesman said: “Where possible we try to re-locate our staff.”
The Argus has reported landlords reporting takings dropping by £1,000 a week in some pubs. Littlehampton appears to have been one of the worst hit areas with five pubs being forced to shut.
A survey by the Campaign for Real Ale revealed 56 pubs a month are closing across the country.
