This man who is now Governor of Maine, hates smokers with a passion. I have gone round and round with him over the past ten years, even when he was Maine's Senator. Baldacco is a DemocRAT.
Posted on 10/10/2003 8:56:47 AM PDT by SheLion
If you’ve ever been to a gambling casino, you know that gambling and smoking go together like slot machines and coins. They have such a close association that the Harvard Medical School studies the subject.
Guess what? As things stand now, if initiated referendum Question 3 passes in a statewide vote on November 4, allowing the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes to build a $650-million, 5000-employee gambling casino/resort in Sanford, it will be the only casino in America where smoking is banned.
The ban will exist because Maine has a new law that prohibits smoking in almost all indoor public places. It goes into effect January 1. There’s no exception for the casino.
This ban came as surprising news to many political observers on both sides of the contentious casino issue. Many of them believe the huge resort cannot succeed financially if smoking is prohibited — the tribes count on attracting an average of 20,000 visitors a day.
A casino that banned smoking has been tried. In the early 1990s, a small Las Vegas enterprise, the Silver City , attempted to fashion a smoke-free niche among the dozens of casinos in that famous Nevada gambling mecca. Within a year, it returned to the conventional smoky rooms.
So, if the referendum bill passes, will the tribes have to ask the legislature for an exemption from the no-smoking law? Some Augusta insiders believe they must, and they also think this request would result in a bitter political fight.
But, after a few days of hedging (there was "no plan" for an exemption, "I can’t speak for the tribes," etc.), Erin Lehane, spokeswoman for the pro-casino campaign, Think About It Maine, finally answered unequivocally the question of the tribes’ need for an exemption.
"They are not going to do that," she said firmly. "It will be a no-smoking casino."
However, if there is truth to the widespread belief that a no-smoking casino is doomed to failure, there exists, possibly, another way out of this dilemma for the tribes and their Las Vegas financial backer, the big casino-development corporation Marnell Corrao. Political gadfly John Michael has begun a citizens’ initiative campaign to repeal the smoking ban. If his group can collect 50,519 voter signatures by February 2, the repeal question will be on the November 2004 ballot.
SMOKING AND GAMBLING: HAND IN HAND
"Gamblers are smokers," says Wayne Mehl, a Virginia lobbyist for the gambling industry, in an article on www.thestreet.com. "Surveys show more than 50 percent of all bettors smoke, compared with less than a quarter of the general adult population. ‘It’s possibly the only social group in the country where smokers outnumber non-smokers.’ "
In 1996, a Canadian survey of over 2000 adults found that while just 21 percent of non-gamblers smoked daily, 30 percent of "recreational" gamblers did; 41 percent of "heavy" gamblers did; and, for "treatment-seeking gamblers," the number was 69 percent.
Internet news databases contain articles that quote casino executives warning that smoking bans will drive their establishments out of business. In one Canadian newspaper, a casino owner facing a no-smoking law estimates that "more than 50 percent of his . . . clientele are smokers, and he worries that many will choose to do their gambling in a place that accommodates their tobacco habit."
"Since smoking and gambling go hand-in-hand for many people," states a gambling-news-Web-site story about the giant Foxwoods casino in Connecticut , its patrons expressed relief that the resort, on sovereign Indian territory , was exempt from Connecticut ’s strict new anti-smoking law. (The Maine referendum bill specifically prohibits the tribes’ casino from being built on sovereign Indian land.)
This article notes that Connecticut casinos "accommodate their customers’ habits by placing ashtrays next to slot machines, at gaming tables, and throughout the public walkways." They also have non-smoking gambling rooms.
An Associated Press story from 2000, describing the Silver City failure, observes that some casinos "offer sections of non-smoking tables and slot machine banks, but whole floors devoted to non-smokers are rare in the casino world."
As for a Maine casino without smokers:
"I never heard of that before," said Naomi Greer, communications director for the American Gaming Association, when told the Maine casino would have to ban smoking. She added in a skeptical tone: "I don’t know of any casinos that are smoke-free." Her group, headquartered in Washington , DC , is the gambling industry’s research and lobbying arm.
The closest parallels to smoke-free casinos that Greer could come up with were Delaware ’s "racinos" — slot-machine rooms at racetracks — that fell under a new state anti-smoking law.
"Their business has gone way down, and it’s a big issue in the [ Delaware ] legislature because tax revenues from the racinos have gone down, too," she said.
According to Thomas Grey, director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, the Delaware tracks conducted a study to see who was abandoning the racinos. He said they discovered that 68 percent of their patrons smoked. "There’s a lot of cross-addiction," he commented.
Wanda Hamilton of Miami , a spokeswoman for a prominent smoker’s rights organization, Forces International, said flatly about a smoke-free Maine casino, "they’d be finished if they try this. Casinos have been fighting smoking bans everywhere."
Without being prompted, the politically savvy Hamilton mused: "I wonder if there would be an unspoken deal to ask for an exemption" if the referendum passed. "For that kind of investment," she could not conceive that casino financers would go through with building one if smoking were banned.
Closer to home, the Forces International spokeswoman for Maine , Darlene Brennan of Caribou, expressed shock on hearing that the Sanford casino wouldn’t allow smoking: "Smokers like to drink and gamble and, if they can’t have all three, why go?" She added that she had been "all for the casino, but they won’t get my money now. This is pathetic."
When the smoking ban hit the Delaware racinos, part of their gambling business drove up the seaboard to Atlantic City . Would New England gamblers skip a Sanford no-smoking casino and instead make the pilgrimage to Foxwoods and the other Connecticut casino, Mohegan Sun? Think About It Maine has said that most of the Maine casino’s clientele will be from Massachusetts . This group will be as close to Connecticut as to Sanford , Maine — or closer.
"With the smoking ban, they can’t compete with Foxwoods," claimed Dennis Bailey, manager of the anti-casino campaign, CasinosNo!
THE DIFFICULTY WITH AN EXEMPTION
"If it passes, they’ll go right to the legislature for an exemption," Bailey assumed.
When some other members of Maine ’s political class were informed that the smoking ban would include the casino, they automatically assumed this, too, about the tribes. Anti-smoking activists thought it relevant that the only significant exemption to the other recently passed anti-smoking law, which bans smoking at Maine beano and bingo games, is for the Penobscots’ high-stakes beano operation on Indian Island in Old Town . (The law covering beano and bingo is LD 227. The general ban on smoking in public places is LD 1346.)
The casino campaign’s Lehane said the question of whether to put an exemption in the casino referendum bill had been debated with the tribes, and they concluded they’d be vulnerable to charges of special treatment if they asked for one.
"We talked to people in the industry who do not see [a smoke-free casino] as a problem," she said, putting in evidence that there is a trend against smoking in American society, that a Native American casino in California bans alcohol but still does well, she said, and that "the non-smoking areas at Foxwoods are popular."
If the tribes changed their mind and sought an exemption, a legislative battle would be virtually certain. The main argument made to legislators for the smoking ban was the right of Maine workers to have a healthy workplace. The main argument for the casino is that it will provide a workplace for 5000 Maine people — and to another 5000 people through the economic activity it will stimulate. Could the casino’s proponents argue for an unhealthy workplace?
The fate of any exemption might depend on how Governor John Baldacci reacts. His combination of Democratic affiliation and Republican economic philosophy has given him, so far, control of the legislature. He supported the smoking ban, and he opposes the casino.
He hedged on the exemption question. Lee Umphrey, his press aide, said that when he asked Baldacci what he would do if the tribes requested an exemption, the governor replied that he didn’t want to speculate on the matter until the outcome of the referendum is known. Umphrey added, though: "My guess is that the exemption for bingo halls [the Penobscots’ Indian Island exception] will be the last exemption for smoking."
Judy Dorsey of the Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health, a group that worked to get both smoking bans passed, felt that a lobbying effort for an exemption for the casino would have a rough time. Besides the worker-health issue, she said, another telling argument would be an exemption’s creation of "an uneven playing field" between the casino and the restaurants and bars nearby.
She added, speaking of the tribes: "I’m sure they’ll ask for an exemption."
In her disbelief that the tribes would go forward with a no-smoking casino, she was a member of a chorus.
"This is an absolute bombshell. I’m stunned," said one prominent Maine political figure, speaking off the record.
THE JOHN MICHAEL WILDCARD
John Michael, the former Auburn legislator, 2002 independent gubernatorial candidate, and referendum-campaign professional, could provide the casino with another way out of what may be a dilemma if he is able to see his overturn-the-smoking-ban initiative bill successful at the polls next year.
His Maine Freedom Coalition had tried and failed to collect the needed 50,519 signatures by a September 12 deadline to suspend the legislature’s smoking ban — actually, to suspend both smoking bans — until a "people’s veto" statewide referendum could decide their fate. He hadn’t raised enough money from taverns to get his signature-collection campaign in full gear soon enough (see "People’s veto put off," Sept. 26, by Sam Pfeifle).
The prime occasion for signature collection, though, is coming up. If Michael can field several hundred people at polling places on Election Day, he could obtain the necessary signatures for his new initiative petition in a matter of hours.
But there’s also the question of how he would obtain the big-time cash needed to run a credible pre-referendum campaign next year. The taverns have turned out not to be a rich funding source. The big tobacco companies are one possibility. Another is the would-be casino developer.
Although Michael personally is vehemently opposed to the tribes’ casino, he expressed interest in accepting money from Marnell Corrao, which is financing the pro-casino campaign. "Maybe I should call them?" he asked rhetorically in his trademark flippant tone.
But would the casino forces finance him? "They will not fund John Michael’s campaign. They will not participate," replied Erin Lehane.
The tribes and their Las Vegas friends appear to have gotten themselves into an awkward political and financial position with a casino that under current law will have to be smoke-free. If their referendum campaign doesn’t go down in smoke — perhaps because gamblers, the majority of whom are smokers, discover they won’t be able to indulge their smoking habit at the Two Tribes Casino — how can a non-smokers’ casino possibly succeed?
Perhaps Maine , going against conventional wisdom, will show the way: Dirigo.
But don’t bet on it.
Lance Tapley can be reached at ltapley@prexar.com
This man who is now Governor of Maine, hates smokers with a passion. I have gone round and round with him over the past ten years, even when he was Maine's Senator. Baldacco is a DemocRAT.
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I remember this. Here's a link to that article:
Las Vegas Casino profits could go up in (no) smoke
From the casinos' point of view, Mehl said, the "ideal" solution to shielding employees and customers from smoke is a combination of effective ventilation and smoke-free areas.
There's your ticket! Big Smoke Eaters and wonderful ventilation. Works everytime!
Republican economic philosophy? Baldy? Bwahahahahaha!
On a brighter note, a Freeper we all know in Caribou got her name in the paper, eh?
:O)
Exactly! And the remaining bars/taverns up here where I live have huge smoke eaters as well. You have to LOOK to even SEE anyone smoking. They take the smoke AND the smell out of the air. There is no reason on earth for these gruesome nanny's to FORCE Smoking Bans on ANY business.
It's a power play. You know it and "I" know it.
hehe! Lance called me over a week ago. I ask him to please email me when he wrote his article. I guess he got too busy, because this was sent to me by someone else. hmmmmm that might have been Lance himself, using a screen name in here. Anyway, I am happy I got to post this thread.
Thanks, Metesky!!!
Your darn tootin, Joe! What smoker is going to sit at the slots, feel that they are going to hit at any minute, then want to leave their slot to go outside for a smoke? This isn't going to happen. The people will go to New Brunswick Casino. I THINK it's in New Brunswick, but I do know there is one close to Maine where the Mainers go now.
"Their business has gone way down, and it’s a big issue in the [ Delaware ] legislature because tax revenues from the racinos have gone down, too," she said.
Being a (recently) former Delaware resident, who fought long and hard agains the ban - I can attest to the truth of these statements. But it goes beyond just tax revenue.
The state takes a cut of all revenues from those slot machines - those revenues are down DRASTICALLY. And the horse racing purses are also down, because they get a cut of the money as well (the slots were put in to help the racing industry)
Of course we won't get into the rest of the revenue via licenses and taxes the state is no longer receiving.
I wish the casinos in maine lots of luck - they are going to need it. The casinos in NJ and WV are close enough for folks in other states to no longer bother coming to Delaware.
Biting their noses to spite their faces.
Just more back door ways of putting bars and gambling venues out of business.
Thanks for weighing in on this Gabz. We went through all of this LAST year with Delaware and Ruthie! Delaware isn't looking too good about now. Pity.......
A lot of the lawmakers are still rubbing the little people's noses in the stink the State GOVERNMENT makes! I'm tired of it.
HELL! Just ban FREE THOUGHTS too! Turn us all into little puppets. A LAWMAKERS DREAM COME TRUE, wouldn't it be?!
The restrooms have no fixtures. (Conserves water)
The elevators only have one button.(Conserves electricity)
The The parking lot only has room for one car.(Helps with global warming and that ozone-hole thingy)
The Maine Politicians have no brains (Obviously)
The Portland Sea Dogs will play their baseball games next year without bats and balls.(No one will get hurt and no one will lose self esteem by losing)
sorry I couldn't weigh in earlier - but Friday afternoon is 'date' time for me and hubby before the little one gets off the school bus.
It's so very nice to go sit and hang out with folks, have a few beers, play some trivia and not think about having to go outside for a cigarette.
Delaware looks pretty pathetic, IMHO.
I may have Virginia tags on my car now (with a tobacco leaf on each of them, I might add!!!) but I still have my "Ban Ruth Ann" and "Land of the Free, Except Delaware" bumperstickers on there.
I'm looking forward to seeing the expression on people's faces when I pull into Dover with those tags next month!!!
But it will be even better when I show up in Dover when the Legislature reconvenes in January to attend a few political functions.
NO. There is a special casino exemption.
In other words, they give a lot to election campaigns.
Actually, they think WE have no brains! ack!
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