I find it hard to swallow that House Democrats are so short in leadership timber that they have to resort to people who think like Speaker Andy Dillon and his crew.
Take this item from a Detroit Free Press story on a smoking ban: “Committee chairman Rep. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, has supported the smoking ban exemption for Detroit’s casinos, which testified that a ban would cost them hundreds of jobs because patrons would choose to gamble at Indian-owned casinos, where a smoking ban would not apply.”
From Detroit, the nearest tribal casinos are in Mt. Pleasant and Standish. My state of Michigan map shows Detroit to Mt. Pleasant as a 147-mile trip; Standish is 132 miles away. With traffic and construction, that has to be a 2.5 to 3 hour drive, right?
So, in order to roll the dice or play the slots with cigarette in hand, huge numbers of people will embark on a 4-6 hour round-trip? Really?
The Freep attributes to Dillon an even sillier train of thought: He wants to allow smoking on the casino floor, but not in restaurants steps away, but still inside the casino. It seems to me that any gambler so committed to smoking that he will take on a big road trip isn’t going to accept having to eat without tobacco in hand.
If you want to argue that businesses should decide for themselves on the smoking issue, fine. I prefer non-smoking places myself and try to spend my dollars that way, but that’s my view.
However, let’s not toss out ridiculous claims of how a ban will wreck this particular business. This news came out just last week: “Smoking bans do not significantly affect employment in bars and restaurants, according to research released Tuesday by the University of Minnesota and Ohio State University. That result runs contrary to the arguments made by bar and restaurant owners as they’ve fought such bans at state legislatures and city halls across the country.”
Maybe you could make me think Casino A would lose business to Casino B, if they were located across the street from each other, but this Indian casino as bogeyman argument is just dumb.
I would have more respect for folks like Dillon and Johnson if they would just say, “Detroit casinos donate to political campaigns, so we are doing what they want.”
Mid-Michigan Dems Mark Meadows, Joan Bauer and Barb Byrum really should look into finding new leadership for the House Democratic caucus.
