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DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) — Five years after South Dakota voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and casinos, the issue remains divisive, with proponents lauding the improved health of state residents, and detractors claiming the ban led to a business decline from which they've never recovered.
On the day of the annual Great American Smokeout, the American Cancer Society says fewer South Dakotans are smoking tobacco than ever. Still, about 19 percent, or 126,000 South Dakota adults, continue to smoke, while youth smoking stands at 16.5 percent. Both were 23 percent in 2011 and remain about 1 percentage point higher than the national average, according to David Benson, South Dakota government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
"We're seeing declining rates of individuals smoking, a decrease in youth using cigarettes, a decrease in the use of chewing tobacco, and those numbers are a reflection of fewer individuals having to deal with an unhealthy smoking environment," Benson said from his Sioux Falls office. "We've made it easier for people to quit."
In November 2010, South Dakota voters approved the smoking ban in a landslide referendum election, 65 percent to 35 percent.
"There was a lot of smoke and mirrors presented to voters, distractions meant to divert the focus from public health, and that is what this issue is about," Benson told the Rapid City Journal (http://bit.ly/1NdVGsg ). "A 2013 poll showed 85 percent of South Dakotans support or strongly support the smoke-free law. It is clear from the outcome of that vote five years ago that the ban is incredibly popular."
But not universally.
Opponents of the ban say the one-two punch of the ban and a sagging economy ended a winning streak for South Dakota video lottery and Deadwood gambling.
"Yes, I think the smoking ban was the major factor in the reduction of gross revenues for South Dakota's video lottery," said Deadwood Mayor Chuck Turbiville, who also serves as chairman of the state's Video Lottery Commission. "We noticed it in Deadwood, and it certainly was evident from the video lottery establishments across the state."
State statistics seem to bear him out. In 2010, net video lottery income stood at $215 million. The following year, the first year in which the smoking ban took effect, revenues plummeted to $191 million, then to $176 million in 2012. Those figures rebounded somewhat to $184 million in 2013, and $185 million last year, but have yet to hit the levels recorded before the smoking ban.
Deadwood's experience matched that of the video lottery.
"I don't think Deadwood has ever recovered from the smoking ban," said Tom Rensch, managing partner of the Silverado/Franklin Historic Gaming Complex. "We've never gotten to that level of gaming again."
According to Rensch, a high percentage of smokers gamble, and when they were banned from casinos, the bottom line suffered.
While video lottery and cigarette-tax revenues dropped 10 to 20 percent in the first year after the ban, Deadwood gambling revenues recorded their biggest year-over-year loss since gambling was legalized in 1989.
After a Deadwood then-record of $106.2 million in revenues in 2010, that figure decreased to $100 million in 2011, rebounded to $107 million in 2012, then dropped again to $103 million in 2013. Gross gambling revenues stood at $104 million last year, according to statistics from the South Dakota Commission on Gaming.
But for some gambling operators, the smoking ban did more than reduce revenues and lead some casinos to cut hours of operation and reduce staff. The ban, some private business owners said, stepped on their rights and the rights of their customers.
Lifelong Deadwood resident, businessman and longtime smoker Mike Trucano said that every gambling jurisdiction in the U.S. that had banned smoking had at least a 15 percent decline in revenues.
"I thought the business owner should make the smoking policy for their own building," he said. "Let the market decide."
Despite their opposition to the ban, Rensch and Trucano said they've gotten over the issue in the past five years and continued working on marketing efforts designed to expand Deadwood's visitor season and attract new customers.
"We've adapted," Rensch said. "I think smokers have adapted also by going outside and smoking. We've moved on. We've found new ways to grow our business."
Louie Lalonde, the co-owner and general manager of the Saloon No. 10 who said she quit smoking only when she realized she was waking up at 3 a.m. to light a cigarette, said the smoking ban has helped her bar business.
"I was probably the only saloon-keeper in the world who didn't favor smoking," Lalonde said. "But I worried about my bartenders and wait staff, who were being subjected to eight hours of constant smoke in their faces for 40 hours a week.
"I think the ban's been absolutely 100 percent positive," she added. "Those who have stubbornly stayed home because they couldn't smoke are far outnumbered by those who have come back downtown and those who have adjusted to stepping outside to have a cigarette."
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Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
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