While the Battle for control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives got all the attention Nov. 7, voters in several states weighed in on issues that affect the meeting and convention industry.

Anti-smoking campaigns in Nevada, Ohio, and Arizona made headway. In Nevada, voters approved a modified smoking ban that makes exceptions for gaming areas of casinos and standalone bars. Smoking will be banned in restaurants, as well as bars and taverns that serve food. Whether the ban will extend to hotel and motel rooms is unclear and may be subject to post-election legal review.

In Ohio, two anti-smoking questions were on the ballot; voters passed Issue 5, which bans smoking in all indoor places except for tobacco shops, designated hotel rooms, and designated areas in nursing homes.

Arizona voters also chose between two smoking bans and passed the more restrictive measure, which bans smoking in enclosed public places, including restaurants and bars. It does allow exceptions for some hotel and motel rooms.

Differing Casino Decisions

Casino projects were on the ballot in Rhode Island and Louisiana. Voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed Harrah's Entertainment Inc., along with the Narragansett Tribe, to build a resort casino in West Warwick, R.I., just outside Providence.

The proposed $1 billion project would have included a 500-room hotel with casino space for 3,500 slot machines and 150 game tables. Groups lobbying for the casino — such as Rhode Islanders for Jobs and Tax Relief — argued that it would have provided close to 4,000 jobs and generated more than $100 million in tax revenue for the state by its third year of operation. Proponents also said the proposed casino would have lured potential patrons from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, away from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, both about an hour away in Connecticut.

Opponents maintained that a new casino would have drawn business from the state's two large gaming operations, Lincoln Park and Newport Grand, and would have cost the state a substantial amount in lost tax revenues.

In a press release issued after the measure's defeat, Harrah's, addressing the Narragansett Tribe, said, “We share your disappointment at being denied the right to a casino on your sovereign land, a right that every other federally recognized tribe in the United States enjoys. We hope that some day Congress corrects this injustice.”

Meanwhile, Pinnacle Entertainment won passage of a ballot measure in Louisiana that allows it to build a $350 million casino hotel next to its L'Auberge du Lac facility in Lake Charles. The new resort, Sugarcane Bay, is scheduled to open in 2009.

Voters in Calcasieu Parish will allow Pinnacle to build the casino by using a casino license it bought from Harrah's after Harrah's decided not to rebuild its riverboat gambling complex in Lake Charles, which was damaged by Hurricane Rita.

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