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STATE CAPITOL: Smoking-ban exemption for casinos not dead yet

Posted June 04, 2007 11:00 pm

Laura Camper

By LAURA CAMPER

STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD -- As the Senate completed a long day of work in the wee hours Friday, it voted down an amendment that would have exempted all Illinois casinos from a statewide workplace-smoking ban for five years.

However, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, isn't giving up on the idea. He said Monday he plans to move forward with an amendment that would exempt only casinos 10 miles or fewer from the state border. Jacobs said he hopes to work with Sen. James Clayborne, D-Belleville, who sponsored the failed amendment, but has not yet contacted him.

"What we will try to do is to amend it to include just casinos within 10 miles of the border that have competing boats that have smoking," Jacobs said.

If another state also bans smoking on its casinos, the exemption would end, he said.

Illinois casinos in Alton, East St. Louis, Metropolis and Rock Island would qualify.

Casino Rock Island is building a new project in Jacob's district and would be unable to finish if the exemption is not granted, he said.

"For me, this is a $156 million question," Jacobs said. "If we're not able to find some kind of compromise on this issue, Casino Rock Island has indicated to me that their banker will not finance them on the project."

Though Clayborne's amendment fell four votes short, Jacobs believes he has a good chance of passing his amendment once senators realize how important it is to his district.

"It was late at night. It was the last thing we acted on. Frankly, even I hardly knew what the bill was," Jacobs said of the vote. "I have good relationships with senators on both sides of the aisle. I don't think it is impossible to come up with 36 votes."

If the governor signs the Smoke Free Illinois Act, the ban would go into effect Jan. 1, before the Rock Island Casino project is completed. A simple majority of 30 Senate votes would make the exemption effective June 1, 2008, and would protect the construction, he said. To exempt existing casinos from the Jan. 1 deadline, 36 votes would be needed.

Advocates of the Smoke Free Illinois Act have vowed to fight exemption amendments. Mike Grady, state public policy director for the American Cancer Society, said casino employees should have the same right as all other employees in Illinois to breathe smoke-free air.

"There's no reason that casino employees should be made to be second-class citizens, unworthy of the same protections of all other workers in the state, period," Grady said.

He also rejects the idea that smoking bans are bad for business.

"There's going to be a boat across the river that allows the 20 percent of the population that smokes to smoke. There's going to be a boat on the other side that caters to the 80 percent that doesn't smoke," Grady said. "I think I like those odds."

Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, who also introduced amendments to the ban but said he probably will not pursue them, believes the casino exemption lost because of "the perception that surrounded that amendment, that the only reason the casinos were even at the table and able to get a vote on an exemption for themselves, is the amount of money the casino industry contributes to political campaigns."

"Based on conversations I've had both before and after that vote that happened last week, I think that the opponents of any exception whatsoever are in pretty good shape," Righter added.

Laura Camper can be reached at (217) 782-6882 or laura.camper@sj-r.com.

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