Bingos an Afterthought in Smoking Ban Politics

It appears that the Michigan smoking ban battle will primarily pit the Detroit Casinos and the restaurant/bar industry against the politicians. Charitable organizations and private clubs appear to be an afterthought.

Articles on the subject debate the impact a smoking ban will have on both restaurants and casinos. Those for the ban question doubt if there will be any impact to the bottom line of these businesses. While those against the ban argue that their businesses will suffer tremendously. The truth is probably somewhere in-between.

However, very few of these debates even mention the affect a smoking ban will have on charitable bingos and private clubs. Studies have shown (and we can point to a mountain of anecdotal evidence as well) that smoking bans kill many bingos. Bingos, for whatever reason, have a large smoking population. And, bingos compete directly with Native American casinos which allow smoking and will continue to allow smoking after the ban.

It's unfortunate that the groups that will be most affected by the smoking ban are the least considered in the debate.