Myth: Smoking bans in traditionally smoke-friendly businesses such as taverns will actually increase business as non-smokers will now patronize businesses they have been avoiding
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
Fact: Quite the opposite has proven to be the case. Business declines dramatically.
In Helena, the only city in Montana which has enacted an all-out ban on indoor smoking in buildings accessible by the public, business declined immediately and drastically. Business owners there licensed for adult beverages or gaming reported revenues down by as much as 75 percent with necessary employment reductions.
Gaming revenues alone during the first three months of the ban--when enforcement was just being implemented and compliance was spotty--dropped over $370,000, and during the second quarter, when it was only in effect two months (having been declared unconstitutional in late November) revenues fell another $460,000. If other sales revenue categories--food, drink, entertainment--dropped at the same rate, total sales losses could have been in the $4.6 million range.
Source:Special Reports II, published and distributed to 180,000 households state-wide, winter 2002 by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.