INSIDE

Bingo hopes to survive clean air

State voters gave overwhelming support to a smoking ban for all public spaces. It will spell big changes for local businesses that cater to Canadian gamblers who want a cigarette with their pull-tabs.
“I think at first it’s going to affect us quite a bit,” said Nick Kiniski at the Reef Tavern, who expects 40 percent or more of his gambling business will disappear when the smoking ban goes into effect December 8.

The local fire department is also bracing for a drop in business at the volunteer firefighter’s association bingo. “It would definitely impact us,” said commissioner David Gellatly. “We’ll lose revenue and add expense.” Today the bingo operation is paying for power, water and cleaning at the Benson Road fire station. When the operation makes a profit, the fire department sees the benefits. “Bingo has provided us with this building, the ambulance. It’s been a real resource,” Gellatly said.
Volunteer firefighter and firefighter association board member Fred DeHaan said 70 percent of people who come to their bingo are smokers. If they go away and aren’t replaced with non-smoking players it will spell the end of firefighter’s bingo. “We’re just hanging in there now revenue-wise,” he said. “If it goes down much more we’ll be closing.”

The question for both Kiniski and Gellatly is whether non-smokers drawn by cleaner air will come out to replace lost smoking patrons. “That’s really it,” Gellatly said. “Will there be a curve or will it just drop off?” Kiniski said he is optimistic the ban will change his business, but won’t kill it. “I think the beer and food end will pick up,” he said. “People smoke a lot in here and I know I come home smelling.”
The lucrative pull-tab end of his business might be on its way out. “My gamblers are older and seem to be people that smoke,” he said. “Years ago smoking was okay.”

The number of smokers in the nation has dropped from 70 percent of American adults in 1965 to 20 percent in 2004, according to the American Lung Association. The initiative to ban smoking in public spaces and 25 feet from windows and vents sailed to an easy victory on November 8, with 66 percent of voters in favor at last count.