Casino update...
Montana's video gambling revenue falls 18 percent January 20th, 2010 by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HELENA, Mont. -- Montana video gambling tax receipts fell by nearly 18 percent in the final three months of 2009, with the new indoor smoking ban adding to the effects of the recession. Gross video gambling taxes will be about $12.5 million for October-December 2009, down by about $2.7 million, or 17.8 percent from the previous three months, said Rick Ask, administrator of the Gambling Control Division of the state Justice Department. The taxes for the final quarter of 2009 are down by 16.8 percent, or $2.5 million, from the same time in 2008. Casinos pay a 15 percent tax on the profits from video gambling machines. Industry officials expected the drop in profits, and thus taxes, because the statewide smoking ban took effect on Oct. 1. "Those numbers would certainly match what we've been hearing from the field," said Mark Staples, a Helena attorney who represents the Montana Tavern Association. "The downturn has been ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent in most licensees that have any significant gaming property." Neil Peterson, executive director of the Gaming Industry Association of Montana, said he also expected about a 17 percent drop. "In addition to the smoking ban and the economy, we had a very cold December," he said. "So with the combination of the three, you're definitely going to get that kind of a result. It's definitely going to impact business." Peterson said he has looked at what's happened in other states with a smoking ban and expects business will gradually come back up over the course of six months or a year. "It won't come back to where it was before, but it will be close," he said. Staples said it's difficult to say how much of the decline can be attributed to the smoking ban and how much to the recession, but he believes most of it is due to the smoking ban because the recession had already hit the state. "But obviously the recession has certainly played a factor and is probably hampering a quicker recovery" from the effects of the smoking ban, Staples said. Read
"Continued smoking in reservation bars, casinos boosts business, raises questions" October 18, 2009 Read Mr. Coleman, a bit more research would have helped this article. Two points for you: 1) Linda Lee, head of the state's Tobacco Use Prevention Project does not know what she is talking about (or is purposely being misleading). "They're getting twice as many toxins," Lee said. Bogus: Studies have been done that show that people exposed to secondhand smoke inhale the equivalent per year often of only a handful of cigs. 2) "Studies have shown that when cities adopt smoking bans, it leads to a dramatic decline in heart attacks caused over time by exposure to secondhand smoke." Bogus again: The RAND study published in March of 2009 contradicts that and beats all other studies published on this issue because it does not conveniently cherry pick one particular town or city (or rehash several of those studies and lump them together) but includes data from numerous states that have passed bans. The study finds that smoking bans have no effect one way or the other on heart attacks. I have been involved in the movement to scale back or repeal smoking bans for four years now. This year alone at least eight U.S. cities have either repealed or scaled back their bans and bans have collapsed in Germany and the Netherlands as well. We look forward to seeing Montana bans collapse too. Bans make current economic woes even worse. I have put a link to an article I wrote for the Heartland Institute about the historical failure of smoking bans and have attached the RAND study as well. Jeremy Richards, Ph.D. Sources: History Shows Smoking Bans Likely to Be Repealed - by Jeremy Richards - Budget & Tax News ReadSource for eight cities, Germany, Holland: Read
Blackfeet Nation has its own ban September 25, 2005 MIKE DENNISON Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - Montana's new indoor smoking ban does not apply on American Indian reservations, which have some of the highest rates of tobacco use in the state.
But for the Blackfeet Reservation in northcentral Montana, that omission doesn't matter: The Blackfeet Nation passed its own, stricter tobacco ban this month.
Other Montana tribes are talking about the issue, but so far, the Blackfeet Tribe is the only one to put a ban into tribal law, says Lori New Breast, tobacco-use prevention director for the Blackfeet.
"We really can't say Montana is smoke-free if you have Native American communities that are not smoke-free, that are still being exposed to the dangers of secondhand smoke," she says.
The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council approved the indoor tobacco-use ban in July 31. It took effect Sept. 1.
It bans all smoking and tobacco use in public places on the reservation. The two tribally owned bars and casinos and privately owned bars that get the majority of their income from drink sales are exempt until 2007.
The ban is stricter than Montana's state ban, which takes effect Saturday. Montana's ban applies only to smoking, not all tobacco use (except in public schools), and exempts bars until 2009.
New Breast says reaction to the ban has been mostly positive, because many restaurants on the reservation already prohibit smoking and "there is a lot of awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke."
The law says violators can be fined up to $500, at the discretion of the Tribal Court. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers will enforce the law.
Like Montana's ban, the Blackfeet tobacco ban does not apply to Indians' traditional, cultural uses of tobacco in ceremonies. Indians do not consider "commercial smoking" to be a traditional use, New Breast says.
Recent surveys have shown that as many as 60 percent of adults on the reservation use some form of tobacco, or nearly three times the rate among Montana's general population, she says.
New Breast says the Blackfeet law is gaining plenty of attention, and that she's received inquiries from tribes in many other states and even from New Zealand, from Maori natives.
"It's a great opportunity for any other Indian nation to address this public-health issue," she says. "I look forward to the day when all of Montana is smoke-free, including all of the Indian nations. But each tribe has to decide how to do it."
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