Carpenter works part time at the Legion. He said the smoking ban has driven away business. Pull tab receipts are down and people who used to be regular customers don’t come around as often and they don’t stay as long. Carpenter said veterans especially, should have a right to smoke in their own club.

“They’ve served their country, and a lot of them are older veterans,” Carpenter said. “They’re not going to stand outside in 35 below zero weather and smoke. I mean, they’ll sit at home and smoke.”

The Bemidji American Legion has been smoke free longer than most bars in the state. That’s because Beltrami County passed a smoking ban ordinance a full two years before the state did. Club manager Bill Rice said the ban is largely to blame for cutting the club’s business in half.

“We were doing two and a half million in business in gross sales a year,” Rice said. “We’re down to a little over a million this year.”

Rice has had to cut three jobs at the Legion since the smoking ban took effect.

Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association interim director Tony Chesak said it’s clear to him the ban is causing bars across the state to fail.

I’d say, realistically, 200 to 300 licensed establishments, at least, have closed,” Chesak said. “I would think that would be a conservative number.”

Membership in the association dropped about 25 percent this year. Chesak said the promise of non-smokers frequenting bars more often because of the smoke free law hasn’t panned out.

“All the anti-smoking folks had said, you know, you get smoking out of your facilities and we’ll come in droves,” said Chesak. “Well, those droves didn’t come out.” {They never do.}

A poll conducted in September shows Minnesotans support the statewide smoke-free law by an overwhelming 77 percent. Gordon said national studies have found that smoking bans don’t hurt businesses in states that have bans in place. {That’s only true of studies conducted by nicotine nannies or the governments that passed the law. The few studies funded by tavern associations show the real, devastating effects.}

Source: Minnesota Public Radio. Link.

A YEAR after the smoking ban was introduced, pub landlords in north and west Wiltshire have described the “detrimental and costly” effect on their businesses.

Lionel Hadland, who has run The New Inn, in New Road, Chippenham, for the past 18 years, said he had not seen a profit for months.

“I am going to have to approach the brewery and see if I can get a reduction in rent as otherwise I am going to have to move on,” he said.

Mr Hadland who runs the pub with his partner Jane, said they had let a member of staff go because they couldn’t afford to pay her anymore.

The Wiltshire Times reported in May how five pubs in Bradford on Avon were being sold off due to a reported fall in trade, some of which was attributed to the smoking ban.

Peter Everleigh, landlord of The Riverside Inn, said he was selling up because the smoking ban had deterred people from going into pubs.

Source: Wiltshire Times.  Link.

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.

Source: Minnesota Daily. Link

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.

Source: Morning Advertiser. Link

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.

Source: The Argus. Link

(Some bar owners, devastated by declining revenues as a direct result of smoking bans, have come up with a clever way to win back their smoking patrons. They declare everything that happens in a bar is a performance, and everyone inside is an actor. The state law allows actors to smoke on stage.)

It’s not exactly the venue you’d envision for a Saturday night performance. But Bugg’s Bar in South St. Paul has become the latest stage for a statement.

“We’re doing it because we’ve lost so much business, and we’re trying to get people back out, trying to get them back in the community, trying to get them back in the bars,” said Crystal Bentson, Manager of Bugg’s Bar.

Patrons at Bugg’s Bar paid two dollars for a sticker entitling them to a role in the bar’s production Saturday night. It also gave them an opportunity to light up, if they desired.
You can call it the second act in an ongoing drama. Turns out, dozens of bars across the state are now treating the smoking ban like a brief intermission.

Kenn Rockler of the Tavern League of Minnesota said he’s heard from more than a hundred bar owners looking for the latest way to deal with a ban they say is bad for business. They think they’ve found it, in a once little known exemption in the state smoking ban that allows smoking in theatrical productions.

“Maybe the people who did the exemption weren’t aware what would happen with it,” Rockler said. “But again, those people are the same people that said businesses wouldn’t suffer.

Rockler estimates more than four thousand people have lost their jobs since the ban went into effect on October 1, 2007.

State Senator Kathy Sheran sponsored the law last year, she said the current activity undermines the intention to “protect people from smoke in all of these places.”

“It’s creative, it’s clever, it shows us a loophole in the law that people will want to find their way through,” she said. “But it will require us to find resources to go back.”

(Yeah, damn those hard working business owners who refuse to go out of business. We must punish them!)

Source Kare11. Link

Officials of Harrah’s Metropolis riverboat casino claim Illinois’ new smoking ban has resulted in the layoff of about 30 jobs at the casino.

Casino officials claim guests are spending less on entertainment and making fewer trips because of the ban and the casino suffered a drop in visitation compared to the previous six-month average.

Metropolis Mayor Billy McDaniel pointed out Thursday that he predicted when the smoking ban went into effect January 1, that it would have negative consequences on the local economy.

Source: WQAD.com. Link

Harrah’s Metropolis Riverboat has been forced to lay off over thirty workers in response to declining business. According to casino management, customers of the casino are visiting less frequently and for shorter stays since the smoking ban was enacted.

As casino revenues drop, so do payments to states, revenue which is desperately needed to fund budgets across the country. Can’t the would-be do-gooders relax for once, and allow people freedom of choice?

Source: Online Casino Advisory. Link

A ban on smoking has cut sales in bars and pubs, according to new sector survey. The Association of Travel and Restaurant Services says that income for pubs has dropped more than predicted.

There is also a transition period of two years for bars and restaurants that have arranged the smoking areas so that tobacco smoke does not spread to smoke-free areas.

Restaurants that successfully applied for a transitional period to full no-smoking status were found to have actually increased net sales. Bars that have built the special smoking rooms have seen income fall just like those where smoking is totally banned.

In the survey, 15% of establishments said that they have cut back on staff because of the drop in sales.

(In other words, bars that still allow smoking are seeing increased sales.)

Source: Yle.fi Link

It’s been nearly two months since the Minnesota statewide smoking ban took effect. As Chris Buckley reports, it’s having an impact on bar business on the Iron Range.

Palmers Tavern in Hibbing has been in business nearly fifteen years. Owner John Larson says he’d expected business to take a hit after the new law went into effect and he did immediately.

He says this October he sold nearly thirty percent {less} product than October of 2006.

And the biggest hit was the weekday afternoon crowd.

“The people getting done with work that want to have a couple of beers, a couple of cigarettes, and go home.

These people don’t go out at night, they don’t go out on weekends, this was the only time we’d see them, and many I haven’t seen since October first.”

“Our reps have said they’re at least 30 to 35% down in sales, I do know of a place in Orr that’s already begun laying off people because of it.”

He says pull tab sales are also nearly thirty percent lower than normal.

“I see the same regular players but don’t see them gambling as much, some would spend several hundred a night, and now instead of playing for three hours they’re here maybe an hour.”

The non-smokers who frequent the bar, he says, are happy with the new rules.

But those are people that are there several times a week. He hasn’t seen any new customers taking advantage of the smoke-free environment.

“I’d be interested in asking the non-smokers that say they haven’t come out in ten, fifteen years that stood in front of the county and said, we’re ready to go out. Geez, I’d like to see it - we’ve been here for 15 years, now we’re smoke free, you wanted it so here it is!”

Source: Northland News Center. Link

A bingo hall has been forced to close after 37 years in business.

The Bingorama club in King Street, Belper, closed its doors for the last time on Tuesday.
The club’s operator, Stylus Sports, said that current pressures facing the bingo industry, such as high taxation and the smoking ban, made Bingorama economically unviable.
Managing director Peter Hargreaves said: “I have worked in the bingo industry for nearly 30 years and the current climate is the most difficult I can recall.

“If the Government continues failing to address the inequality of trading position that bingo clubs currently face, many local communities will see a familiar social facility disappear from their towns for good.

“It is with much regret and sadness that we have been forced to close Bingorama with the resulting loss of jobs and social facilities for local residents.

“I should like to thank all our staff and customers for their support over the years.”

Source: Evening Telegraph. 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

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

The bingo industry generates billions of pounds in stake money, and employs 20,000 people throughout the UK. However, as the smoking ban in enclosed spaces is introduced, experts are predicting disaster, with up to one in three clubs facing possible closure.

In Scotland, 10 clubs have already closed down since the ban was enforced last April - and more are set to follow.

“The effect of the smoking ban in Scotland’s been a lot worse than we thought it was going to be,” says Neil Goulden, chief executive of Gala Bingo.

“We’ve actually now lost 8% of our customer base who have stopped coming altogether.”

“When you look at a loss of around 40% of your bottom line, that’s devastating, and I’m not sure as operators where we move from here,” Mr Lowe says.

Mr Lowe has already taken drastic measures by closing down two of his seven clubs, and he fears for the future.

Now, with less than six weeks to go before the smoking ban comes to England, the big companies are bracing themselves for closures.

Gala’s chief Mr Goulden predicts trouble ahead for the industry.

“We could have 200 bingo clubs closing. This could mean an enormous number of job losses and loss of amenity to local communities.”

Source: BBC News. Link

Lawyers for Colorado bar owners say the eight-week-old statewide smoking ban has devastated some smaller taverns, slashing their incomes by up to 80 percent.

In a court filing Friday, the lawyers also said the ban has triggered layoffs and caused fights among patrons who go outside to smoke.

The state also argues the Legislature had valid reasons for exempting casinos, including the 100 million dollars they generate for the state every year.

Source: kktv.com. Link

TWO leisure groups revealed yesterday that trading had been hit in Scotland since the implementation of the smoking ban last spring - with one confirming resulting job cuts.
Rank said it was cutting 200 jobs at its Mecca Bingo clubs across the UK and closing its London head office with the loss of 40 jobs as it reported a 3 per cent fall in underlying first-half profit.

Source: The Scotsman. Link expired.

Source: whns.com. Lansing,MI. Link Expired

“Owners are losing their businesses and people are losing jobs,” said Montreal bar owner Peter Sergakis, head of the Union des tenanciers de bars du Quebec.

In response to a poll conducted this summer, dozens of bar owners told his association they were going broke, Sergakis said.

The 1,500 bar owners who responded to the survey reported a 30-per-cent drop in revenues from alcohol sales, video-poker terminals, pool tables and food since the no-smoking rules went into effect May 31, Sergakis said.

At least 478 full- and part-time jobs have been cut, he added.

Bars outside major cities are hardest hit because their clientele is older and more likely to smoke, Sergakis said.

“Just wait for winter - the effect will be double,” he said. “People won’t want to go outside to smoke in minus 30C.”

Source: Montreal Gazette. Link

EVERETT, Wash.—Less than a dozen cars speckled the parking lot outside the White Elephant Bar and Grill on a recent Saturday night in this growing Seattle suburb. Inside, most booths and tables sat empty while two electronic dart boards hung unused on the side wall. A handful of customers encircled the restaurant’s lone pool table, sipping beers and conversing easily at normal volume levels. Owners John and Donna Kerns leaned on the end of a deserted bar and watched helplessly as their once buzzing establishment choked to a slow death on its clean, smoke-free air.

Six months ago, that hub teemed with activity, drawing several thousand people on any given weekend. Now, business is down more than 50 percent. The Kernses, both in their 60s, have laid off employees and significantly trimmed their hours of operation.

Source: World Magazine. Link

The Canadian Auto Workers union is asking the Ontario government to supplement the incomes of hospitality workers who are laid off because of the province’s smoking ban and to provide retraining for them.

The casino’s senior managers have told the union they are predicting at least a 30 per cent drop in business followed by layoffs, Lewenza told Pupatello in a letter.

Source: The Windsor Star. Link

We’ve given our bar staff lay off notices. There is not a lot of things you can do as a bar owner. It is a very scary thing,” said Waneta Goldstein, manager of the Chances R Motor Hotel of laying off two staff.

Our customers are requesting a smoking environment. Can we value our customer opinions? No, because our government wants to control us even more by engaging a law that eliminates our rights.”

Source: Canoe CA. Link Expired

MADISON, Wis. — Five months after the city’s smoking ban was implemented, tavern owners continue to blame the ban for declining business.

Joe Klinzing, spokesman for the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs, said that regular customers are no longer coming in and virtually no new customers are replacing them.

Klinzing said that he blames the smoking ban.

He said that because of slower business, payroll at his bar is down $17,000. He said that that means the regulation is actually taking money from the same workers the ban was designed to help.

Source: Channel 3000. Link

The owner of a bar in Happy Valley-Goose Bay is blaming its closure on the provincial government’s new indoor smoking ban.

Rumours night club shut down last week after serving customers for nearly 26 years.

Owner Mike Lethbridge says there was a dramatic drop in business after the new smoking regulations came into effect this summer: “After the smoking ban, it was like somebody turned on a light. It was just nobody there – absolutely nobody,” said Lethbridge.

Before the ban, Lethbridge says he employed eight people each Friday night.

After the ban, Lethbridge dropped the number to three.

“Last Friday night, we had two staff,” he said.

The Beverage Industry Association says four other bars across the province have shut down since the ban came into effect July 1.

The provincial Alliance for the Control of Tobacco says it regrets the layoffs, but executive director Kevin Coady says the health of people – not businesses – is its top priority.

“In no way is it our intention to hurt people – this is all about protecting people.”

(The sanctimonious twit protected them all right - protected them right out of their jobs into the unemployment line.  And for numerous reasons, being out of work is not very healthy.)

Source: cbc.ca.  Link