Smoking claims another casualty: Casino Revenues in Oregon. Apparently, smoking bans are bad for casino busiess, and there’s ample evidence to prove it. Today, OregonLive.com reported that Oregon’s gambling revenues dropped 15.2 percent, just beating out second-place Illinois. This data, published by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, follows suit with the findings from the report published by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank back in June 2009. Yet another piece of evidence that smoking bans are unhealthy for casinos.
I’d like to suggest the same remedy to Oregon that I proposed previously to Illinois: Smoking licenses. What if State governments sold “Smoking Licenses,” similar to the way towns sell liquor licenses? Would casinos would gladly pay for a smoking license, assuming the cost is less than the 15-20% they’re losing now. That kind of exemption could help casinos recover their lost revenue. If so, then the state would also get money – first from the licenses, then from the increased taxes on the casino’s revenue.
When the house loses, we all lose. Decreased revenues in casinos mean decreased tax revenues. And since gaming revenue taxes are often directed to schools, could the smoking ban be hurting our educational system too?
Tags: casino, gambling, IL, mo, OR, smoking ban, smoking license
