Harrah’s New Orleans Blames Cigarette Ban for Declining Revenues, Pennsylvania Casinos Set Record
Posted on: April 19, 2016, 07:29h.
Last updated on: April 19, 2016, 07:45h.
Harrah’s New Orleans says the cigarette ban imposed by the city a year ago this week has negatively impacted its gambling revenues and needs to be held accountable for the casino’s downward spiral.
![Harrah's New Orleans smoking ban](https://www.casino.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.jpeg)
Statistics provided by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board seem to back up those claims. Gross gambling revenue at Harrah’s New Orleans totaled $23.9 million in March, down nearly 21 percent from the $30.2 million the casino generated in the same month during 2015.
Since 2007, all Louisiana workplaces and restaurants have been smoke-free, but the law didn’t apply to casinos and bars. Following a unanimous New Orleans City Council vote and Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s (D) signature, a city ordinance went into effect on April 22, 2015, that banned cigarette smoking and vaping on the casino floor.
“Slot revenue, Harrah’s largest source of revenue, has been impacted the most with slot revenue down 17 percent in the period following the ordinance’s effect compared to prior year,” Harrah’s spokeswoman Jade Brown-Russell stated. “In the 12 months impacted by the smoking ban, Harrah’s has experienced gaming revenue declines in 10 of the 12 months.”
Clash of the Ash
Supporters of the clean air ordinance say Harrah’s is simply looking for a scapegoat to place blame.
“That’s been a trend over the last couple of years,” Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living Associate Director Tonia Moore said of the financials. “I know a lot of people want to connect that with the smoke-free ordinance, but unfortunately we still cannot connect that to being the sole purpose for their revenues declining.”
Under the law, gamblers must leave a slot machine or table game to smoke a cigarette in a designated area.
Moore’s position is also with merit, as Boomtown New Orleans, located south of the city in Jefferson Parish and outside of the smoking ban, also saw its revenues go south. Year-over-year, Boomtown reported an earnings decline of 2.3 percent.
Pennsylvania Sets Record
Smoking in Pennsylvania’s 12 land-based casinos is still permitted, though in certain smoker-friendly gaming areas. Instead of an outright ban, Keystone State lawmakers and local government officials opted to allocate up to 50 percent of the casino floor to smokers, though all dining areas are 100 percent smoke-free due to the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act.
The compromise seems to be working.
In March, Pennsylvania gaming facilities reported a record month for table revenues as the casinos raked in $77.9 million. That figure is the most ever in the state’s six-year history permitting blackjack, roulette, poker, and other tables.
Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Bethlehem once again led the way by posting $19.6 million in table receipts.
Slots also claimed higher revenues in March, with the casinos posting a combined $211.2 million from the machines. In total, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said gaming rose 4.2 percent during the 31-day month.
Considering casinos pay an effective tax rate of 55 percent on slots and 14 percent on table games, one of the highest tariffs of any state with legalized gambling, Harrisburg politicians are surely welcoming the increased income as they continue to try and find new ways to fund swelling expenditures.
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Last Comments ( 10 )
"Harrah's Casino said it has seen the brunt of it, reporting a $35 million dollar decline in revenue." The tax-funded and well-paid Antismokers got the ban in with rock solid promises that hordes of thirsty, hungry, gambling nonsmokers who were previously cowering in their homes would fill the casinos to overflowing with their piles of hoarded gold. They were lying about that just as they lie about almost everything else in getting their bans in place. Harrah's should take them to court and sue them for damages based on the amount of losses as opposed to what neutral economists examining nearby casinos without bans would project if the ban hadn't been forced on them through the lies. Taking it directly out of the pockets of the organizations AND THE PEOPLE responsible for the losses might prevent a repeat of the situation and perhaps open the way for reparations for similar losses elsewhere (E.G. Illinois' casino losses of 22% in the year after their ban while the casinos in the three surrounding states **ALL** showed **INCREASES** in that same year!) Antismokers should be forced to put their money where their mouths are as they roam around destroying the lives and livelihoods of honest people! - MJM
You mean suing the govt for destructive laws. Good idea, but dont bet more than a few cents on it.
Not just the government, but the front organizations paid from the $500 million/year MSA "smokers' tax" funds and the officials running those organizations. If the government proved immune, then those organizations and people could be sued independently. - MJM
Michael J. McFadden and Vinny Gracchus are the same person. He spends all his time commenting on smoking-related message boards. Get a life, Michael/Vinny.
Really Clay? Want to tell us what you base that opinion on? For the record, nope, not only aren't we the same person, we've never even met!
Smoking bans should be amended to allow both smoking and non-smoking options.
It would make sense to allow one or two of the casinos to also allow 25 or 50% of their dining/drinking areas to be Free Choice as well, but the raving Antismokers would never allows such an experiment of course: the Free casinos' revenues would quickly show the lie to the Antismokers' claims. Just note the nonsensical statement from Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living Associate Director Tonia Moore in the box between the stories on NOLA's Harrah's and the situation in Pennsylvania. A few years ago when Illinois banned smoking in its casinos their revenue plunged by 22% while the three surrounding states with no bans all saw their casino takes actually INCREASE. Antismoking researchers and organizations lie about the effects of smoking bans and *also* lie about there being any sort of actually significant threat from ordinary levels of smoking in decently ventilated establishments. All they care about is the Endgame: eliminating smokers: any lies or wrongs or damage along the way is just treated as incidental since "The End Justifies The Means." See http://bit.ly/SmokingBanLies for a more detailed examination of the most popular lies that they push in getting these bans and then think about the amount of damage they've caused in various ways. - MJM
Do they allow you the Free Choice of casino gambling online? I dont worry about any racetrack smoking policies when I bet horses online.
If you live in an apartment, retirement community, or row-home you may not be able to do that in the near future either Ted. - MJM
Some of the groups wont be happy until it is illegal to smoke. The war on smoking will work just as well as the war on drugs.