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Parts of Iowa casino bill are worth debating
Gazette editorial,
Feb. 25, 2015 12:00 am
It was launched with much fanfare locally, but an effort to alter Iowa's casino gambling landscape and make room for a smoke-free facility in Cedar Rapids has made little Statehouse headway.
We're wary of prognosticating the unpredictable ebb and flow of a Legislative session. Anything can happen.
But lawmakers soon will cull a herd of bills filed since January, and the casino measure hasn't exactly set the Capitol ablaze. Key lawmakers have expressed serious doubts about the prospect of lawmakers handing Cedar Rapids a casino license after its bid was rejected last spring by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
We knew it was a long shot. But we still think there are ideas embedded in Cedar Rapids' legislative push worth salvaging.
For one, it's well past time for lawmakers to end casinos' exemption from the state's ban on smoking in public places. Secondhand smoke is a hazard for casino staff and patrons just as it was for folks working in and enjoying bars and restaurants.
Casino interests complain they will suffer massive revenue loses if smoking is prohibited. Those are the same arguments we heard from the owners of taverns and eateries before the smoking ban. Those concerns proved to be vastly overblown, and we have little doubt casinos will continue to make plenty of money without indoor smoking. It's likely they'll draw new patrons who now avoid hazy venues.
If lawmakers want the commission to test those assertions by licensing one or two smoke-free casinos, so be it. We're certain Cedar Rapids could make a good case for its proposal.
Cedar Rapids also makes a good case that the current system for scattering gambling revenues to non-casino counties is woefully inadequate. In 2013-14, 84 nongaming counties split $11 million, or roughly $131,000 each. So Linn County, population 216,000, got about 60 cents per person. Casino-generated charitable and civic giving in Washington County, home of the Riverside Casino, topped $3 million in 2014.
While Cedar Rapids sought its own casino, operators in Riverside and Waterloo complained that the loss of Linn County patrons would severely harm their profitability. And yet, precious little of the money generated by those critical customers benefits Linn County.
If Iowa is closing the door on more casino competition, it should at least address this unfair disparity.
' Comments: (319) 398-8469; editorial@thegazette.com
A person holds a cigarette while playing a machine at Riverside Casino and Golf Resort in Riverside on Monday, February 16, 2015. (Stephen Mally/The Gazette)
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