A state legislator who owns a restaurant in northeast Iowa says the odds are good that a bill to ban smoking in state-licensed casinos passes the Iowa House this year.
Republican Representative Shannon Lundgren of Peosta said thousands of casino employees are exposed daily to second-hand smoke, something she experienced years ago when she was sales manager for casinos in Iowa and Illinois. “You literally left your clothes at the garage door and your shoes…and everything else because you didn’t want your house smelling like an ashtray,” Lundgren said. “…With cancer rates the way that they are in the state of Iowa, it is time to move this forward and protect those employees over profits, which I don’t think are going to drop anyway.”
Mary Earnhardt, executive director of the Iowa Gaming Association — which represents the state-licensed casinos, testified at a House subcommittee hearing this morning. “Our casinos invest in modern ventilation and air filtration systems and many designate smoking and non-smoking areas on the gaming floor,” she said. “These steps help manager air quality and allow our properties to serve a diverse customer base.”
Earnhardt told lawmakers that if the bill passes, smoking could continue at the four Native American casinos, which are not regulated by the state. “Eliminating Iowa’s gaming floor smoking exemption would create an uneven regulatory treatment among competitors operating in the same markets, both within Iowa and across state lines,” Earnhardt said.
Therese Harms, a lobbyist for “Clean Air for Everyone Iowa — a coalition of groups that support the casino smoking ban, emphasized that 20 states have taken the step to end smoking on the gaming floor. “South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Illinois have already acted to protect the workers in their casinos from second-hand smoke,” Harms said. “Iowa should not be an outlier.”
The bill cleared a House subcommittee this morning. It failed in a Senate subcommittee last week.