An exception-free smoking ban discussed Thursday night by the Unified Government Board of Commissioners could draw the ire of many, including the three applicants vying to build a casino in Kansas City, Kan., and a fourth in Edwardsville.
Although the commission wasn’t scheduled to take a vote, a number of commissioners expressed support for a smoking ordinance that would provide for no exceptions – including the future casino.
Commissioner Pat Pettey held out the belief that KCK’s casino would be of a high-enough quality that a smoking ban inside wouldn’t serve as much of a deterrent.
But not providing an exemption for casinos could put a Wyandotte County casino at a competitive disadvantage compared to other metropolitan-area casinos.
Earlier this year, a smoking ban in Colorado was expanded to include casinos, and reports from a number of smaller operations there indicated that revenues dropped 10 percent, which many attributed to the tougher smoking ban. Elsewhere, media reports indicated that a smoking ban in Illinois sent gaming revenues down 20 percent, while a smoking ban in Atlantic City resulted in a nearly seven percent decrease.
“We’ve dealt with this issue before in other jurisdictions,” Pinnacle Entertainment spokesperson Pauline Yoshihashi said Friday. Pinnacle is proposing a casino in KCK. “This is an issue that’s here to stay, but we don’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage.”
Two other KCK proposals would also be affected, but officials with the Hard Rock casino were unavailable for comment Friday. The team behind the Legends Sun proposal didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Also of note: whether the upcoming UG smoking ordinance would be limited to just KCK or would effect the entire county.
A handful of commissioners asked whether the ordinance could be expanded to cover Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, thus including Golden Gaming’s Edwardsville proposal.
Legal staff said they needed to do more research to determine how a smoking ordinance could be applied county-wide.
Rod Atamian, executive vice president with Golden Gaming, expressed concerns with the possibility of a complete ban.
"In gaming markets where smoking has been banned on the casino floor, we have routinely seen a significant decline in gaming revenues,” Atamian said. “Such a decision would have a significant negative economic impact on results at the Wyandotte County facility, the local municipalities and the state.”
But the only way Golden’s proposal would be subject to the ban is if the UG makes its ordinance county wide. Edwardsville Mayor William “Heinz” Rodgers has repeatedly said he has no intention of bringing a smoking ordinance before the Edwardsville City Council.
Throwing another wrench into the exception-free ordinance would be downtown KCK’s 7th Street Casino, which is owned and operated by the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma Indian Tribe.
Hal Walker, UG chief legal counsel, said two issues would have to be resolved to determine the impact a smoking ban would have on the tribe’s casino: 1) Does the UG have enough jurisdiction over the operation to ban smoking? and 2) Whether it’s even a casino.
The tribe’s Class II gaming license does not permit it to operate full-fledged casino games. Walker argues that the tribe’s operation isn’t a casino at all – and instead is just a large-scale bingo parlor.
The distinction would be crucial however – the smoking ban passed earlier this year in Kansas City, Mo., exempts casinos from the ban, but only if other casinos in the metropolitan area are also exempt.
Misty Brown, an attorney with the UG, explained that all of the metro area casinos must go smoke free before any of the KCMO casino gaming areas will prohibit smoking. The list of casinos includes the Wyandotte Nation’s 7th Street Casino.
