Smoking Ban Cutting NY Lottery Sales - Business UNITES

AP - Boston.com ^ | May 22 2003 | AP - Boston

[Outraged At FLA]

Albany -- New York lost more than $500,000 in lottery sales after hundreds of bars and restaurants unplugged their lottery machines to protest the statewide smoking ban in businesses, officials said Thursday.

The protest was meant to deprive the state of revenue from the Quick Draw game and publicize bar and restaurant owners' concerns that the smoking ban will hurt business, said Scott Wexler of the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association.

[Outraged At FLA]

If this was already posted, feel free to delete, I searched and searched, so blame FR's search engine, not me! :P

""It's a shame that the retailers aren't getting their commission and it's a shame that the schools aren't getting the 25 cents of every dollar that they would have been getting," Hapeman said."

This is the funniest line of the entire article! I guess NYS doesn't think it is a shame about all the livelyhoods they are destroying with this arcane smoking ban they are trying to push down our throats!

[Outraged At FLA]

Its funny that this article comes out shortly after:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/23/nyregion/23SMOK.html?ex=1054353600&en=f31c46527b5f3065&ei=5062

EXCERPT:

State legislators are considering two proposals that would weaken a new state smoking ban by allowing people to light up in bars and restaurants that build stand-alone smoking rooms, or are operated by their owners.

[noutopia]

Once you get rid of the smoking ban,get rid of the Hildabeast,you people scare us with the way you vote.

[FreeRadical]

Related Stories:

State's smoking ban draws protest

NYC Smoking Ban: Stick Your Butt in Bloomberg's Face!

Passive smoking risks in doubt, study says

Cig Cops to Pack it in at 11p.m.

Thanks for the post. This is kind of a pet issue of mine so above is a tiny bit of stewardship for the thread.

The only good thing I know about the smoking ban stuff is it sure does make it e.z. to spot bad guys. Stand up and say you believe you have a right to clean air in someone else's private space and, ding ding, we've got a positive ident: stupid, meddling, state teat suckin scum.

[FreeRadical]

Oops, I forgot this one: 

Protest 'Draws' 100G from State (NY Bar Owners Fight Back)

Cool to see that lost rev number getting bigger...

[heleny]

it's a shame that the schools aren't getting the 25 cents of every dollar that they would have been getting," Hapeman said.

I don't know about NY, but if they are like California, then there will be no difference in education funding. In CA, the lottery money simply replaces what the state would have spent on education. If more people buy lottery tickets, then the increased revenues offset the amount CA is obligated to pay for education, thereby freeing more money for our legislature to waste on long-term pork programs.

[Captain Shady]

From the Associaated Press yesterday.Don't blame the cigarette companies if you can't read the warning on side of pack.

Article published May 22, 2003
Court throws out $145 billion tobacco verdict

CATHERINE WILSON
AP Business Writer

MIAMI -- A Florida appeals court erased a record-setting $145 billion award against the tobacco industry Wednesday, ruling thousands of Florida smokers could not group themselves together for a class-action attack on cigarette makers.
Tobacco company stock prices jumped on news that the 68-page order by a three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal found several flaws with the largest punitive damage verdict in U.S. history and the two-year trial that produced it.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, the nation's second-largest cigarette company with brands like Winston and Camels, issued a statement calling the ruling "a major victory for the tobacco industry."
"Tobacco couldn't have wished for a more positive decision," said Martin Feldman, tobacco analyst at Merrill Lynch.
But Mark Gottlieb, an attorney with the anti-smoking Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University's law school, called the decision "a terrible blow" to Florida's sick smokers.
Margaret Amodeo, whose husband Frank lost his $5.8 million compensatory damage award for throat cancer under the ruling, said they were "very disappointed." He was too hoarse to speak. The decision discarded two other individual awards as well.
Janine Goluba, whose late mother had won a $3.5 million award, said the decision was "beyond my comprehension. ... Lie, cheat, deceive and still be able to be on top."
The six-member Miami jury decided almost three years ago that cigarettes are deadly, addictive and defective because they make people sick when used as directed. It set punitive damages for an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 smokers after deciding compensatory damages for Frank Amodeo and two other cancer victims who served as representatives of the group.
But the appeals court agreed with the tobacco industry that the class was unmanageable, found the award would have violated state law by bankrupting the companies, called the trial plan unconstitutional and chided the smokers' attorney, Stanley Rosenblatt, for making racially charged appeals to four black jurors.
He had made references to the Holocaust and slavery while discussing the sale of cigarettes.
Rosenblatt and his wife, Susan, who also represented the smokers, were out of town Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. They have the option of asking the full appeals court to review the case.
The court said that while cigarette makers were accused of similar fraudulent conduct, there are enough differences among smokers' cases that they shouldn't be allowed to sue together. The court called its conclusion "inescapable."
William S. Ohlemeyer, vice president of Philip Morris USA, the maker of industry-leading Marlboros, said the ruling "is in line with the country's legal mainstream."
"This decision clearly shows we were right," said Mark Smith, a spokesman for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., whose cigarette brands include Kool, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike.
"We feel that we've been completely vindicated in every respect," said Ronald Milstein, vice president and general counsel of Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco, maker of Kent and Newport cigarettes.
He said the verdict "was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning" and "was a travesty of justice."
Liggett spokeswoman Brandy Bergman said the company was "pleased with the court's decision."
In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares for Philip Morris' parent Altria Group rose $3.39, or 9.7 percent, to close at $38.30; R.J. Reynolds shares gained $1.57, or 5 percent, to $33.28; and Loews shares rose $1.82, or 4.3 percent, to $44.10.
Gottlieb called the decision "very surprising" because the same court created the class in 1996 and refused once before to reconsider its decision. In the meantime, many other courts nationally have denied class-action status for smokers.
Asked about the court's flip-flop, attorney Alvin Davis, who argued the appeal for cigarette makers, said: "They were dealing with everything on almost a hypothetical basis when it went up the first time. Now they have a record that demonstrates all of the flaws."
Philip Morris hopes the decision will bolster its challenge to a $10.1 billion verdict in an Illinois class-action lawsuit by 1.1 million Illinois smokers who claimed they were tricked into believing light cigarettes were less harmful than regular brands.
Even with tobacco's victory in the Florida case, Philip Morris, Lorillard and Liggett are out $710 million. After trial, the three companies agreed to pay that nonrefundable amount to keep Florida smokers from challenging the constitutionality of a new state law on appeal bonds enacted during the case. No structure has been created for distribution of the money.
"At the time, it made sense for us," said Ohlemeyer. "It demonstrates how important it was for us to get to the appellate court."
When the appellate process ends, the industry will get back another $1.2 billion deposited with the court to appeal, a tiny fraction of what it would have been required to pay without a change in the law.
Public policy has been moving against Big Tobacco. The World Health Organization is pushing governments to adopt sweeping anti-smoking restrictions, and several states have banned smoking in most indoor workplaces and restaurants and boosted taxes on cigarettes.
The major tobacco companies settled state lawsuits for smoking-related health care costs in 1998 for a total of $246 billion.
In October, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Philip Morris USA should pay $28 billion to a 45-year smoker with lung cancer, but a judge reduced it to $28 million. Cigarette makers face more than 1,000 lawsuits by individual smokers.

[George W. Bush]

Nice links. Keep posting this stuff. I wonder why these lawyers aren't suing the states for licensing and profiting from tobacco. After all, they have always been deeply involved in the tobacco and alcohol trade.

[evad]

I don't know about NY, but if they are like California, then there will be no difference in education funding. In CA, the lottery money simply replaces what the state would have spent on education. If more people buy lottery tickets, then the increased revenues offset the amount CA is obligated to pay for education, thereby freeing more money for our legislature to waste on long-term pork programs

That is EXACTLY how it works in ALL states.

It's like the UGF pretense that you can DIRECT your contribution to a particular charity. Sure you can...and then they take that amount of money from the general fund that they would have normally given to that charity and put it where ever they choose.

It's all a mirage.

[N. Theknow]

it's a shame that the schools aren't getting the 25 cents of every dollar that they would have been getting," Hapeman said."

What a shame!

The state won't be taking a dollar from parents and giving 25 cents of it to schools.

Oh, the pain and suffering as the once profitable mob business of playing the numbers has now been taken over by.......a bigger mob.

[goldstategop]

Let's not forget the massive tax increases on New Yorkers pushed through by tax happy Dems and RINOs in the New York State Legislature. Serves' em right and I don't feel particularly feel their pain. Matter of fact I'm relishing for a change the arrogant SOBs incessant whining.

[lelio]

"A lot of them (customers) are saving money from not losing money on Quick Draw and they have more money to spend on drinking," Shastany said.
Yikes, the cat it out of the bag. Bars are going to realize that the lottery machines aren't bringing in the people (and at 6 cents net / play I think that about pays for the electricity to run the thing) and not bring them back. More money in the bar owner's pocket.
Look for a lift on the smoking ban, but only for bars with lotto machines.

[freekitty]

Too bad; so sad.

[LaineyDee]

Dallas needs to try this as well. Laura Miller imposed the same type of ban....against the rantings of the restaurant and hotel associations. Her attitude is the same as Bloomberg's. Disgusting. One hotel lost a huge revenue, right off the bat..... I think it was the Phillip Morris convention who cancelled in protest.

[Sicon]

Margaret Amodeo, whose husband Frank lost his $5.8 million compensatory damage award for throat cancer under the ruling, said they were "very disappointed."

So because her husband was too stupid to know that cigarette smoking is dangerous, or too weak to quit, they should get $5.8 million? My grandmother smoked from the time she was 13 to the time she died at 87, and she never had any cancer, emphysema, or any other "smoking-related" illness. My father smoked for over 40 years, and is now 75, and has never had any "smoking-related" illnesses. And if he did, it'd be his problem, because it was his choice to smoke. I don't care if the tobacco companies DID try to make cigarettes MORE addictive. So what? It is each individual's responsibility to make such decisions (to start smoking or not) for themselves, and to deal with the consequences of those choices. That's part of what freedom is all about.

[b4its2late]

They claim to be using the sales tax from cigs to help pay for medicaid. No wonder my taxes are going up to fund medicaid. All the smokers are quitting!

[bert]

The solution is civil disobedience. Go ahead and smoke and disregard the smoking police.

. if a customer complains, show them the door.

[Gabz]

PING!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gabz]

good links.

Stand up and say you believe you have a right to clean air in someone else's private space and, ding ding, we've got a positive ident: stupid, meddling, state teat suckin scum.

While you're right it's a good way to spot the bad guys - the problem is that these people do not consider a bar or restaurant private property - the definitions of public and private have totally blurred in the face of this issue.

[Gabz]

It's being done in Delaware.