Ill. House OKs lifting casino smoking ban
By Dave McKinney
A woman smokes while playing slot machines at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, in Atlantic City, N.J., Thursday Sept. 13, 2007. At least six casinos in Atlantic City will ban all smoking on the gambling floor by next spring to comply with the city's new smoking restrictions at casinos. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House voted Tuesday to lift a smoking ban in casinos during a debate that pitted the health of bettors and casino workers against hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues.
The proposal, which passed 62-52 and now moves to the state Senate, represents a significant softening of the state’s 2008 anti-smoking law that banned tobacco use in virtually all indoor public areas.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if we’re serious about our budget crisis in Illinois, let’s be real. This is not about the smoking issue. This is about the money,” said Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, the bill’s House sponsor.
Burke said the smoking prohibition has cost the state $800 million in lost casino tax revenues since the imposition of the ban. Lobbyists for the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin claim the smoking ban is to blame for a drop of 33 percent in the gambling boat’s gross revenue since 2007, the year before the smoking ban went into effect.
Getting rid of the ban would put Illinois’ casinos on par with casinos in neighboring states that allow bettors to smoke, he said.
Opponents argued that other states have added casinos, which partly accounts for Illinois’ sliding casino tax revenues, and that carving out an exemption for casinos will embolden other businesses, like bars and restaurants, to try legislatively sidestepping the smoking ban.
“It’s a slippery slope,” said Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, who was the chief House sponsor of the 2008 anti-smoking law.
Yarbrough also said allowing smoking in casinos will put the health of casino workers at risk.
“Why are their lives any less important than people who work anywhere else?” she said. “I didn’t hear any debate about what kind of increased costs in terms of hospitals and health care costs as a result of going back to what we did before. I hear the argument on one side about this about the money, but we’ll spend more if we allow this practice.”
A report by the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability characterized the indoor smoking ban as “the biggest contributor” behind a 28 percent decline in casino revenues since January 2008.
That 2010 report also noted casino revenues for Chicago-area casinos dropped by nearly 33 percent since the smoking ban was implemented, while gambling receipts for four neighboring Indiana border casinos fell only 0.4 percent during the same period.
“We have to provide these legitimate business enterprises a competitive playing field,” Burke said.
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