Note: the following appeared in the Sept. 2002 edition of Inside Gaming Montana.Servers and casino runners in Helena have a message for their fellow employees in taverns and gaming establishments in other towns in Montana.
"You should fight for what you believe in and do it as a group," said Kelly Rodriguez, a runner at the Best Bet Casino. "Do it early because you can't do too much."
She also has a message for the social reformers who, with distorted and exaggerated information, successfully promoted a ban on smoking in Helena's taverns and casinos:
"Where are you? You wanted this. You said this would be good for us. Now you can come and pay my bills."
One of the erroneous messages carried by supporters of the ordinance was that children would suffer from the effects of second-hand smoke unless smoking was banned in casinos.
"Kids shouldn't be in bars anyway," Rodriguez said. "We're not here to entertain children. We're here to entertain adults."
Rodriguez and other employees of Helena's gaming establishments reported that business was down from 50-70 percent when the ban became effective July 1, 2002 and tip income has dropped accordingly.
"It's pretty unbelievable," said Rodriguez, a single mother of four. "There are days when I have two people in here."
Rodriguez had become involved in the campaign by helping to gather signatures to place the ordinance, which had been passed by the Helena City Commission and was originally scheduled to become effective last September, on the ballot. It was the first time she had ever become involved in a political issue.
Bridget Prout, also a single mother and an employee of the Montana Nugget Casino in Helena, did not become involved.
"I didn't expect it to pass," she said. "I didn't think it would go this far. There's a lot of things I would change if I could."
Now, of the people who promoted the ordinance, she asks, "Why are you hurting local businesses when you have no intention of patronizing them?"
Felicia O't oole, an employee of Nickels Gaming Parlour whose family has been in the hospitality business in Helena for 37 years, also became engaged in the campaign to defeat the ordinance.
"We tried everything," she said. "We did as much as we could possibly do."
Now she and her boss, Bob Gilbert, are trying everything to get their old smoking customers back.
"We've even advertised free ice on our reader board," she said.
All three casino employees are now looking for second jobs to make ends meet because of their diminished tip income. They also say they miss their "regulars," most of whom are smokers.
"They either are not coming in anymore or are staying for shorter periods of time," said O't oole.
She pointed to a customer who, on a recent weekday, was playing a machine in the casino which had six other customers (normally there are 12-15 just before noon on a weekday).
"He's here right now, but he won't stay long because he can't smoke," she said. "He'll go out to East Helena."
Prout said she has lost more than half of her regular customers and her tips are down about 65 percent.
"People who are coming in aren't staying as long," she said. "It really hurts."
She also pointed that she and other gaming establishment employees don't have the same enthusiasm for their jobs since the smoking ban became effective because they are not seeing their regular customers.
"We were friends," she said. "They almost became family. Not only are you losing that money, you're not seeing people you enjoy seeing on a day-to-day basis. Now, they're out the door before you're done saying 'hello'"
Rodriguez used to earn $40 to $60 per shift in tips.
"Now sometimes I'm lucky to leave with $6 in my pocket," she said. "When you're a single parent and you're working, it makes a big difference. It's hard to find words to explain it."
She also expressed suffering from the same malaise as Prout.
"There's no motivation," she said. "There's no reason to have any motivation when there's only one person sitting at a machine who needs my attention."
Rodriguez said the most enjoyable aspect of her job was working with people.
"We'd laugh and have a good time," she said. "The customers are just great. When they say they have to go somewhere else because they want to smoke, I just want to cry."
One indication of how far business has dropped at Nickels Gaming Parlour is the amount of liquor that is being ordered.
"I used to order twice a week," O't oole said. "And my orders were never less than $100. I only ordered once since the ban went into affect, and the bill was less than $90."
Moreover, she said the gaming parlour has cut four shifts, and is now closing at 10 p.m. "We never used to close before midnight," she added.
O't oole said she paid most of her incidental expenses with her tips and relied on her salary for normal household expenses.
"I just lived on tips," said. "Now I'm living from paycheck to paycheck."
What particularly galls the casino employees are the comments from some of the people who supported the smoking ordinance even though they knew it would hurt gaming establishments and some of their employees financially.
"Some people will say, 'It smells so much nicer in here without the cigarette smoke,'" Prout said. "Some-times you have to bite your tongue. I just don't understand them. If they're concerned about smoking, they should stay home. We have kids to support."
Rodriguez said some customers ask what would happen if they light up, and "I really don't have an answer for them."
"They're confused," said O't oole. "They call first to see if we allow smoking. When we say we don't , they go somewhere else."
"There are no new customers," she added. "There are just new attitudes, and they're not good."
Some customers, however, are sympathetic. "One man came up to me and said, 't his just isn't right,'" Rodriguez said.
If the aftermath in Helena is any indication, the jobs of casino employees are at risk as gaming establishments cut back to accommodate decreases in revenue. And gaming tax revenues and liquor taxes are dropping in the midst of tight state budgets.
Casino employees in Helena want other hospitality workers to take their advice to fight bans.
"Go for it," said Prout. "If you don't , you'll probably regret it.
"If it can happen in Helena, Montana, it can happen anywhere."
Source: Sept. 2002 Inside Gaming Montana
quarterly magazine for workers in the hospitality business, published by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701