Nightlife Changed by Smoking Ban

While at the Oasis bar in downtown Rapid City on Friday night, Jeff Hoffman did something he wouldn't have had to do just over a year ago: Go outside to smoke. In the year since South Dakota voters overwhelmingly approved expanding a ban on smoking cheap tobacco in public places to bars, restaurants and casinos, the nightlife experience for smokers and nonsmokers alike has been transformed. Whether it has been changed for the better or worse depends on whom you ask. "I'm a grown man. I should be able to make my own decisions," said Hoffman, who isn't a fan of the ban. "If they're still selling cigarettes, we should be able to smoke them in establishments that designate smoking." He said it isn't too bad to step outside for a smoke in the summer, but that the real impact comes with the snow. "The nice weather doesn't bother people," he said. "But when it's Rapid City, South Dakota, in January, it is miserable outside." Others have a different perspective. Bill Hamm, a nonsmoker who likes to go out for a drink, called the smoke-free environment at bars "fantastic." "It's really nice to sit at a bar for an hour and not reek of cigarette smoke when you walk out of the place," Hamm said. "It's a huge deal for me." It's also a huge deal for some bar owners, who say the ban is costing them customers. "It has affected the business," said June LaCroix, owner of the Time Out Lounge on East North Street in Rapid City. Some of her customers have stopped coming. Others drink less there and then go home, where they can smoke, LaCroix said. She estimated that slightly more than half of her customers smoke -- along with almost all her employees. "I think I have one that doesn't (smoke) out of 14," she said. "They go out and take smoke breaks -- frequently." Caren Assman, executive director of the Licensed Beverage Dealers of South Dakota, said bars statewide are feeling the effects of the smoking ban. Some drinkers are being driven away, but even more important to revenue are the lost gamblers for bars that had video lottery machines. "Video lottery revenues are down 22 percent," she said. "The majority of my members have video lottery machines, and therefore, that revenue is down. The folks who can't smoke aren't coming in, so their alcohol revenues are down, as well." Matt Wong of Rapid City said the smoking ban has meant he goes to bars less often. "Having a drink and having a cigarette kind of go hand-in-hand, and now, I don't want to go outside every time I have a cigarette," he said. "So, I just decide not to go out any more." Jon Lee, a bartender for the Independent Ale House who has previously tended bar at Paddy O'Neill's and the Firehouse, said the ban might actually be helping business in the long run. "It's not going to keep people from going to the bar," he said. "If anything, it's a positive as far as people being willing to stay longer in a bar because it wasn't filled with smoke." Lee, a smoker himself, also said winter weather isn't a huge factor keeping smokers away. When the weather gets cold, he said, "people smoke a lot faster." Many academic studies of smoking bans have found minimal impacts on the bar business. Jean Forster, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, said her study found no significant change in revenue or employment for Minnesota bars after smoking bans were imposed. That was true not only for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area but also for more rural areas of the state, she said. Whether or not smokers are going to bars less often, many are still unhappy about having to step outside to light up. "We're getting punished," said Marty Cuny, originally from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who now spends the majority of his time in Florida. Going outside to smoke, he said, is a "headache." "It's all right if you're in Florida, but not out here," Cuny said. "It's kind of a pain." Supporters of the ban, however, say the positive far outweighs the negative. "Most smokers I know, including myself, don't mind going outside to smoke," Lee said. "And the patrons who are nonsmokers really appreciate being able to hang out in their favorite bar and pub and not worry about their clothes and their lungs and their eyes being affected by other peoples' smoking."