NEW ORLEANS — The first full month of the smoking ban at establishments such restaurants, bars and casinos hasn’t helped the bottom line for Harrah’s New Orleans, according to the company.
In fact, Harrah’s, which staunchly opposed the ban, said business is off 16 percent compared to May revenue from last year and blames the drop on the smoke free ordinance.
“Although Harrah’s disagrees with the Smoke-Free Ordinance, it has operated in compliance with it since the ordinance went into effect and will continue to do so. However, the financial impact of the ordinance is already being felt on our operations. Today, the Louisiana State Gaming Control Board released May revenue reports which confirmed a 16 percent decrease in revenue in May 2015 compared to May 2014 for Harrah’s New Orleans,” said a statement from the casino.
Before the ordinance, the casino had warned that a similar smoking ban in Illinois caused a 20 percent drop in revenue, and the city of New Orleans could see sales tax revenue decline by more than a half million dollars.
According to Harrah’s, the revenue decline in New Orleans is “consistent” with the impact other casinos have experienced when smoking bans are put in place.
“May was the first full month of operations with the ban in place and gaming revenue was down 16 percent to the prior year, May 2014, and down 5 percent to the prior month, April 2015. The smoking ban took effect April 22, and for the month of April, gaming revenues were down 5 percent to prior year, with the entire decline coming over the last nine days of the month. Compared to April 2014, gaming revenues over the last nine days of the month were down 15 percent,” said a statement from the casino.
Dr. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, said in a statement that two months isn’t enough time to evaluate the ordinance’s impact on businesses, and he pointed to the health benefits that a smoke-free environment provides.
“The reality is, there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke; even brief exposure is harmful to health. Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure,” Johnson said.
Harrah’s recently dropped out of a lawsuit seeking for the city repeal the smoking ordinance.
Below is the full statement from the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living:
As the Director of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) and a career public health and tobacco control evaluator and advocate, I’m surprised that an organization like Harrah’s, who proudly promotes its community support and employee health benefits, is continuing to try to equate any of its losses to the current smoke-free ordinance. Put simply, the ordinance has been in effect for less than two months, absolutely not enough time to evaluate its impact on business, and its entire purpose is to better the health of our entire workforce, musicians, community and visitors.
Secondhand smoke in workplaces where employees and entertainers have no choice but to breathe the polluted air is a well-recognized public health problem. In fact, nonsmoking employees of our bars and casinos are essentially forced to be smokers due to how much secondhand smoke they breathe during every shift they work. Tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death nationwide. Smoking kills 7,200 Louisianans every year and costs Louisiana almost $1.9 billion annually in health care costs.
During the many months we’ve been working to share this information and promote smoke-free workplaces for all, we’ve received countless emails, notes and phone calls from current and former employees at Harrah’s. They thank us on the streets for our work when they see us in our Healthier Air For All t-shirts, tell us their stories, and then beg us to keep them anonymous for fear of their jobs.
An email we received not long ago addressing Harrah’s defeated request for a last minute exemption, stated: “I am very much in support of the smoke-free ordinance, but I cannot voice my opinions publicly due to the fact that I work at the establishment asking for a last minute exemption. I must rely on you and others like you to speak for me, and not let this happen. After being given hope of a healthy life, it would disappoint me greatly to know that my lungs are less important than those who work in every other establishment in the city.”
Another individual wrote us saying: “I have been working as a dealer at Harrah’s Casino for over fifteen years. I like my job, and feel very privileged to be able to work there. I want what is best for the company that I work for, but I don’t want to die in the process. But I don’t think anyone should be able to smoke in a public building anywhere, period.”
>It’s an undeniable truth that their employees want their workplace to remain smoke-free. So why would Harrah’s try to compromise to only protect some and not all of their staff, as well as its patrons?
The reality is, there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke; even brief exposure is harmful to health. Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure. We thank the entire New Orleans City Council for staying strong and recognizing the importance of the public’s health over the unsubstantiated claims of one company.
