|
|
|||||||||
Canadian Smoking Activist Group Cries FoulA ban on smoking in public places across the Canadian province of Ontario could cost as much as $500 million in lost revenue for casinos and other gambling venues.The figure of $500 million was the result of a study by The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. that was conducted in 2004 but never released. Today, a smoker's rights group, mychoice.ca, released the results of the study, which they accessed under the Ontario province's freedom of information laws. Mychoice.ca advocates that, instead of a cover- all ban on smoking, owners of bars and gambling establishments should be allowed to choose for themselves whether to ban smoking or to set up smoking rooms. "It's a staggering amount of money that the government is going to lose as a result of its anti-smoking legislation," said Nancy Daigneault, the president of mychoice.ca, which is funded by the tobacco industry. "I think that it demonstrates that if the (Ontario) Lottery and Gambling Corp. is going to lose half a billion dollars, what is it going to do to the mom-and-pop bars out there?" Daigneault said that the government has deliberately covered up the true economic cost of the ban on smoking in gambling establishments. The Ontarian government announced that the impact of the province's ban on smoking would be between $250 million and $350 million a year in gambling revenue. "The government was not upfront and honest from the beginning," she said. "From the beginning, they were saying that there were going to be minimal impacts [on the gambling industry] and it wasn't going to be a big deal." Premier Dalton McGuinty responded to the mychoice.ca group by saying that his priority is the health of the residents of his province, rather than the effect of the smoking ban on gambling venue revenues. "Quite apart from the economic aspects of this, we think that the health of Ontarians has to come first," McGuinty said. However, McGuinty added that the smoker's rights group's claims of economic damage to gambling sites fail to take the cost of smoking into account. "But there are also a number of studies that support the fact that when you add together the health-care costs connected with this, the loss of productivity, that it is a very expensive proposition when Ontarians smoke." Infrastructure Minister David Caplan, who is charge of monitoring the province's gambling venues, said that the government has not tried to misrepresent the potential drop in revenue in any way. He called the $500 million figure "speculative," and added that, "It's hard to be precise or to know exact figures until we actually see the effect of the smoking ban in Ontario." Caplan also agreed with McGuinty that, whatever the economic costs of the ban on smoking in gambling venues, the main priority is to protect the health of Canadians. Reviews: Alabama Man Charged In Sports Betting Case A man who is accused of leading a sports high roller gambling operation based in Milton, Alabama has pleaded guilty to federal charges. Canadian Smoking Activist Group Cries Foul A ban on smoking in public places across the Canadian province of Ontario could cost as much as $500 million in lost revenue for casinos and other gambling venues. Cardiff Politicians Express Concerns about Proposed Super Casino However, Conservative leader Nick Bourne rained on the casino parade yesterday when he said that the Welsh capital should avoid being "seduced" into hosting a super casino that may have dire social consequences for many residents. Maryland State Delegate to Propose Bill to Outlaw Cyber Gambling Machines Maryland State Delegate Peter Franchot, a Democrat, announced this week that he plans to introduce new legislation to ban cyber gambling machines. He is currently looking for co- sponsors among fellow legislators, and hopes to officially announce the bill on Friday or Tuesday.
|
