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Smoking loophole

Workplace clause casts doubt on casino exemption

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 15, 2006 at midnight

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Colorado lawmakers thought they had allowed smoking in casinos when they banned it everywhere else, but a little-known loophole allows any gaming employee to demand a smoke-free workplace.

The lawmaker who successfully exempted casinos from the ban said Friday that he had no idea that provision exists.

Rep. Jim Sullivan, R-Larkspur, said he thought casinos were safe from the smoking ban, which went into effect July 1.

"Wow, what do you know?" Sullivan said.

"We're not as smart as we think we are."

He said he wouldn't have supported the bill if he had understood that provision, and he wondered whether the smoking ban would have passed the legislature if other lawmakers had been aware of it.

Lois Rice, the executive director of the Colorado Gaming Association, said she even listened to recordings of legislative committee hearings to try to determine the intent of the law.

Another "gray" area of the law that is confusing, she said, is whether the smoking ban applies only to the gaming area of a casino or also to its bars and restaurants.

The law is written in such a way that it exempts all casino operations, she said, but many casino owners banned smoking in their bars and restaurants because they believe that is what lawmakers wanted.

"The casinos are trying to balance what they believe is the intent of the legislation with the customers they have who want to smoke and any employees who want to work in a smoke-free environment," she said.

The Colorado legislature this year approved the smoking ban for bars, restaurants, offices and most other workplaces, but it carved out a few exemptions.

Casinos, cigar bars, tobacco shops and the smoking lounge at Denver International Airport were among the operations that could allow patrons to light up.

"Each such employer shall provide a smoke-free work area for each employee requesting not to have to breathe environmental tobacco smoke," a section of the law reads.

"Every employee shall have a right to work in an area free of environmental tobacco smoke."

Most casino employees are aware that the new law allows them to demand a smoke-free environment, said Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado.

"But very few, if any, employees will exercise that right," she predicted.

"They're afraid of being told to go find another job."

She said there is no penalty in the law for refusing to make a casino employee's work station smoke-free.

But Mike Vautrin, general manager of Isle of Capri and Colorado Station casinos in Black Hawk, said he doubts any gaming operation would do that to an employee who makes such a request.

He said none of his 1,100 employees had, so far.

Colorado's 46 non-Indian casinos employ slightly more than 8,000 workers.

The provision allowing casino workers and other employees in exempted operations to demand smoke-free work places was included in the original bill.

"It's surprising to me that it didn't generate any debate," said the Senate sponsor, Sen. Dan Grossman, D-Denver.

The House sponsor, Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said he has no problem with the provision because he didn't want casinos exempted the first place.

"It's fine with me," he said.

May predicted that next session lawmakers will introduce a bill to ban smoking in casinos.

Steinberg said her group was in the gambling towns earlier this month collecting signatures for such a ban.

"We're getting a signature a minute," she said.

Smoke-Free Gaming of Colorado on Friday mailed out to casino operators a package of information, including the provision in the law that allows workers to ask for a smoke-free area.

Steinberg said the group included a news story from this week about a lawsuit filed against an Atlantic City casino by an employee of 25 years who does not smoke and was diagnosed with cancer.

"That's story's creating a lot of buzz with casinos," she said.

Colorado gambling by the numbers

3 gaming towns: Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek

46 casinos in those towns

8,029 employees at those casinos

2 tribal casinos are not affected by the ban.Source: Colorado Division Of Gaming

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Comments

  • January 9, 2008

    3:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    gekkobear writes:

    Every employee of a casino has the right to make business decisions for the casino, even without having to buy the business in order to own their decisions?

    WOOHOO, private property bad, collective property good. Lets be good little Bolsheviks and worship our Communist overlords for once again making the correct decisions for us; the workers too foolish to allowed to actually be allowed to own anything, or make decisions for ourselves.

    Hope you didn't think you actually owned anything yourself? Not in this country.