Iowa Smokefree Air Act should include casinos

By Mason City Globe Gazette

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Since 2008, it has been a pleasure to be able to walk into restaurants, bars and other businesses in the state without running into a wall of cigarette smoke. The ban on smoking in workplaces has made the state healthier and more pleasant, and almost four-fifths of Iowans in a recent poll agree that the Iowa Smokefree Air Act has made the state a better place to live. ...

From the beginning we have argued that it was unfair and illogical to exclude casino “gaming floors” from the state smoking ban. If an important part of the reasoning for passing the smoking ban was protecting the health of employees from having to work in an atmosphere of secondhand smoke, then allowing smoking in casinos meant the employees there were somehow less important, or their rights to a healthy workplace somehow inferior to other employees in the state.

Even though the ban does apply to enclosed restaurants in the casinos, everyone remembers how ineffective it was to have part of a restaurant smoking and the other part nonsmoking. ..

Casino supporters argued that eliminating smoking would cause a major loss in customers, and with the casinos being the state tax cash cow that they are, legislators were originally swayed by that threat. That's still the biggest obstacle to changing the law, even though lots of studies have shown smoking bans have little or no negative economic impact. ...

We'd like to see the law changed this year, but it's facing long odds. We're getting close to the March 4 “funnel” deadline requiring a bill to have been passed by a House or Senate committee to stay alive. Also, Gov. Terry Branstad has already caused a rift with casino owners and operators by recommending an increase in casino taxes. Although Branstad has been a supporter of the Smokefree Air Act, he has been noncommittal so far whether it should be extended to cover casinos, and it appears unlikely he will push for the change this year.

Nevertheless, Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, who introduced Senate File 283 this past week, said the issue is getting bipartisan support and he was optimistic “it's got a shot” this session. ...

We encourage legislators to put this bill on the fast track. ...

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