Cripple Creek issues tickets to 3 casinos; mayor says smoking issue had gone 'way overboard'

In an abrupt reversal, Cripple Creek police on Wednesday issued $200 tickets to the owners of three casinos for allowing smoking.

The fines came just two days after the casino owners thought they were in the clear. On Monday, the city sent letters to the casinos saying that the state's anti-smoking law is ambiguous and the city doesn't have the resources to investigate whether they qualify under the law's cigar bar exemption. Cripple Creek City Administrator Bill McPherson said on Monday that the city would allow casinos to self-certify that they met the exemption.

The tickets came in response to a formal complaint on Tuesday from Eric Rose, general manager of the Colorado Grande Casino, which hasn't allowed smoking, said Cripple Creek Mayor Dan Baader. Rose has been the most vocal critic of the reintroduction of smoking, saying casinos are breaking the law by exploiting a loophole that doesn't exist.

Baader said a story in Tuesday's Gazette on the city's position attracted attention from television, radio, other newspapers and state legislators. It was time to get the matter resolved, he said, and issuing tickets and allowing the casinos to fight them in court seemed like the best solution.

"I said, ‘Let's flush this thing out, because this has gone way overboard,'" Baader said.

Baader said the city won't ticket gamblers who smoke, but will issue escalating fines to the casinos if they continue to permit smoking. The fines climb from $200 to $300 to a maximum of $500 for each infraction. Baader said management from the casinos - Bronco Billy's, the Midnight Rose and the Double Eagle - will appear together in Teller County court to defend themselves. He expected the court date to be in mid-July. . . and he wasn't laying wagers on the outcome.

"What they want to do is go in there and challenge the law and win so they can keep smoking," Baader said, although he added that he expects the state Legislature to take up the issue if the casinos win in court.

Bronco Billy's set the smoke rising on June 2, designating a quarter of its Bennett Avenue floor space a smoking area. The Midnight Rose, part of the Triple Crown Casinos, and the Double Eagle soon opened their own smoking areas, but the city's other casinos held off on allowing smoking.

Bronco Billy's general manager Marc Murphy said before Wednesday's events that he's kept track of the casino's tobacco revenue since 2005 to make sure his casino met the $50,000 in annual sales required of a cigar bar. The exemption also states that a cigar bar have humidor rentals, but Murphy called that a gray area.

State Sen. Ken Gordon, DDenver, who co-sponsored the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, said he called Baader, the Cripple Creek city attorney and the 4th Judicial District Attorney's office after hearing of the city's position.

"When I talked to the mayor, I said, ‘Give them tickets, let them go to court if they think they've got a case and let them argue it there,'" Gordon said. "It's clear that they're not cigar bars. They were just trying to find anything they could do to get around the clear intent of the law."

Gordon said the courts should be able to clarify the intent of the law without the Legislature amending the clean air act. "We have a lot of other things to be paying attention to, we shouldn't have to pass laws more than once," he said.

Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado, thinks the casinos will have an uphill fight arguing that they meet the standards for the exemption.

"The odds are against them," she said. "The police are finally going to do the right thing. There is no loophole. There never was for casinos."

David Minter, general manager of Johnny Nolon's Casino, which hasn't allowed smoking, said it will be good to get the smoking issue settled and put the casinos on equal footing again.

"Hopefully, it's going to get resolved," Minter said. "I wasn't in favor of us becoming a non-smoking industry, but now that that's become reality, the sooner that everyone gets on board, the better."

On Wednesday, Murphy's office at Bronco Billy's said he wouldn't talk about the tickets. Officials from the Midnight Rose and Double Eagle did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

One other Colorado casino, the Wild Card in Black Hawk, has allowed smoking under the cigar bar exemption since Jan. 1, when the smoking ban was extended to casinos. So far, Black Hawk has taken no action against the Wild Card.

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0275 or awineke@gazette.com