Put money on casino smoke ban

DENVER - Throw down the baby’s meal money and order another shot of whiskey — but whatever you do, don’t light up that cigarette at the poker table.

Beginning Jan. 1, Colorado’s casinos likely will be home to one less vice.

The House voted Thursday to ban smoking in casinos beginning at 8 a.m. on the first day of 2008, joining the Senate in a compromise between the July 1, 2007, snuff-out date proposed by the House and the July 1, 2008, deadline recommended by the upper chamber.

HB1269 now heads to Gov. Bill Ritter, who is still considering what to do, according to his spokesman, Evan Dreyer.

But many who follow the issue say they will be shocked if the first-year Democratic governor does not sign the measure in the next two weeks.

“We are truly elated at the passage of this bill,” said Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado. “We’re happy that finally the casino workers will have the same rights as other workers.”

Colorado banned smoking in businesses last July, but it carved out an exemption for casinos, as well as cigar bars, businesses with three or fewer workers and the smoking lounges at the Denver International Airport.

Since then, a number of bars have complained about not being on a level playing field with casinos, and a group of casino workers have argued they should not have to breathe smoke at work.

An Adams County judge struck down the statewide smoking ban as unconstitutional earlier this month, partly because he could find no reason why smoking is allowed in casinos but not bars. Eliminating the casino exemption could end further challenges to the law, Steinberg said.

Casino owners in Cripple Creek, Black Hawk and Central City protested that extending the smoking ban would drive away customers and result in layoffs.

Republicans were largely united against the bill, with all eight GOP representatives from the Pikes Peak region voting against it.

The only blip in the bill’s progress came when the Senate voted to give the casinos a year’s reprieve before it would take effect.

Sponsor Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, fixed that at a conference committee last week.

The only legislator who spoke against its final passage Thursday was Louisville Democratic Rep. Paul Weissman, a bartender who complained that mom-and-pop taverns did not get to wait until after New Year’s Eve to remove their ashtrays last year.

“The fact of the matter is that we are a political body, and this is a political compromise,” McGihon said.

The delay gives casinos time to build smoking porches, but many have them already, said Steinberg, a casino patron.

Eric Rose, general manager of the Colorado Grande in Cripple Creek, said none of his workers have complained to him about smoke. He is even more frustrated, though, that it took the Legislature just one year to kill the allowance it made to casinos in 2006.

“They add casinos as an exemption to get that passed, and a year later, they reverse it,” Rose complained. “If they put it to a vote, the public wouldn’t vote to ban smoking in casinos.”

Though the casino ban took its last legislative step, a bill to snuff out cigar bars appears stalled in the Senate.

SB250, which would end the cigar-bar exemption, has been laid over for two straight days while sponsor Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, reportedly is having trouble rounding up the votes to pass it.

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303)837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com