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Iowa Casino May Suffer City Smoking Ban
SIOUX CITY, IOWA --
Iowa tried to avoid interferring with casino revenue when it passed its new anti-smoking law earlier this year. The state outlawed smoking in public places, but made sure exceptions were made for the casino floors of Iowa's 17 licensed casinos.
However, the City Council of Sioux City are considering including their town's casino, Argosy Casino, in the ban. Councilman Brett Hoffman finds the casino exception to be an unfair business advantage.
The City Attorney, Andrew Mai, thinks that such a town law superseding a state law to withdraw the exception would be legal, and called the concept "groundbreaking".
A casino spokesman pointed out the likelihood that such a policy change would certainly result in gamblers relocating their patronage, either to other state casinos allowing the smoking exception or to South Dakota casinos nearby.
Revenue for the state would also be affected, with casino income projected to drop as much as $800,000 annually without smoking.Penn National Gaming, the owner of Argosy, says other properties that lost smoking privileges saw revenues decline by an average of 20%.
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