OLYMPIA – Gov. Christine Gregoire has asked the state’s Indian tribes to go smoke-free at their casinos, encouraging them to follow the state’s lead in enacting a statewide indoor smoking ban.
The request was made at a dinner with the tribes in Olympia in November, shortly after voters overwhelmingly passed the strictest smoking ban in the nation. The ban, from which the tribes are exempt, took effect on Thursday.
The tribal leaders told Gregoire they would review the request with their respective councils and boards, said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and president of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, a statewide lobby for tribal casinos.
“The tribes were very receptive” to talking about the issue, Allen said Friday. “The majority of our public facilities are smoke-free. The key question was relative to the casino operations.”
The two Snohomish County tribes with casinos are not in any hurry to comply with the governor’s request.
Stan Jones Sr., chairman of the Tulalip Tribes, said the new Tulalip Casino already has an elaborate ventilation system that greatly reduces the risk of secondhand smoke. Fans from floor vents push the air up to vents in the ceiling to remove the smoke.
“We feel it’s pretty clean air,” Jones said, and the tribes will continue to permit smoking at the casino.
The Tulalip Tribes’ old casino, which is still in operation, does not have such a ventilation system, but Jones said the smoking policy would not change there, either.
“We haven’t checked on that,” Jones said. “We’re just thinking about the big casino.”
Leaders of the Stillaguamish Tribe said they have not decided what, if anything, they would do.
Eddie Goodridge Jr., a Stillaguamish Tribal Council member, said the governor was correct to ask the tribes, because most casinos are on federal trust land, which gives tribes a great deal of sovereignty on land-use issues.
“State law doesn’t apply,” Goodridge said.
Stillaguamish Tribal Chairman Shawn Yanity said he presented the idea to the tribal council, but no decision was made.
“We really, ourselves, haven’t given much thought about what the impacts are or how we’re going to address it,” Yanity said.
The Stillaguamish Tribe’s Angel of the Winds Casino also installed special ventilation to remove smoke.
“It changes the air like 10 or 11 times an hour,” Yanity said.
“It would be a shame to waste that,” Goodridge added.
Still, Yanity said he understood why the anti-smoking initiative passed with a wide margin.
“Myself, I’m a nonsmoker, and I don’t really care to hang out where people smoke,” Yanity said.
He preferred to wait on taking a position until leaders from various tribes can discuss the governor’s request at an upcoming meeting of the Washington Indian Gaming Association.
“Usually, when it comes to gaming issues, the tribes kind of work out the issues together,” Yanity said.
Initiative 901, which voters passed Nov. 8, prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and minicasinos. It also requires a 25-foot smoke-free buffer around doorways, windows that open and ventilation intakes, making it tougher than the laws of eight other states that also have statewide bans.
But tribal casinos are exempt from the ban because the tribes are not subject to state law – a major issue for opponents of the ban, who have argued that small bars and taverns will go out of business because their smoking customers will just go to casinos.
“I would certainly like to see them do it,” said Vito Chiechi, a retired longtime lobbyist and former chief clerk of the state House, who organized the No on 901 campaign. “Then it levels the playing field a little bit.”
Chiechi said that during a brief smoking ban imposed by Pierce County in 2004, smokers flocked to the nearby tribal casinos, such as those owned by the Puyallup Tribe.
Puyallup Tribe spokesman John Weymer disagreed. “We did not see a dramatic increase in business because of that,” he said.
Weymer also said the Puyallups weren’t at the meeting last month and haven’t agreed to consider a smoking ban.
“Right now, we provide nonsmoking areas in our casino in our restaurant and areas like that,” he said.
Of the state’s 29 tribes, 20 of them operate 24 casinos, according to the Washington Indian Gaming Association.
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