Debates: Smoking at the Sault Tribe's off-reservation casino

Thursday, April 5, 2012  

"Should the proposed Lansing Kewadin Casino allow smoking? Cynthia Hallett, the executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, and Roger Martin, who represents the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians for the local public relations firm Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications, made their cases on the City Pulse radio show last week.

Q: Smoking is legal in all Michigan casinos. How did that come about?

Roger Martin: It was an economic argument. When the legislation was being made, the three Detroit casinos made the argument that if you ban smoking here everyone’s going to go to the casino in Windsor right across the river. Revenues will suffer and jobs and tax revenues will be lost.

Q: Is there a possibility that three, four, or five years from now, if this casino does open, it might be a smoke-free casino?

Martin: It’s impossible to predict. If this casino were opening in April, it would be a smoking property. If it opens next year, it will likely be a smoking property. Who’s to say what it’s to be like three, four, five, or seven years from now, assuming all federal approvals are had and the property opens."

Get the Story:
Smoking debate (The Lansing City Pulse 4/4)