Indian Gaming > Smoking ban hurts charity bingo operations

April 24, 2008

Smoking ban hurts charity bingo operations

A ban on smoking in public places has contributed to a 13 percent drop in charity bingo revenue in Minnesota, The New York Times reports.

The law went into effect last October. Bingo players who want to smoke can go to tribal casinos or to North Dakota.

"It’s had a profound effect on us here,” Charlie Lindstrom, who runs the bingo nights at an American Legion post in Fergus Falls, told the paper. "We’ve sponsored several baseball teams here in the past, but we can’t give as much now because the smoking ban has really reduced our revenue."

Other states have seen declines in charity bingo. Most attribute the drop to the expansion of tribal casinos and to smoking bans.

Get the Story:
After the Smoke Cleared, Where Did All the Bingo Players Go? (The New York Times 4/24)
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