Louisiana bill would ban smoking in bars, casinos, restaurants

Doug Simpson

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Cigar and cigarette smoking would be banned in bars, restaurants and virtually all other indoor public areas in Louisiana, under a bill passed by a Senate committee Wednesday.

The measure will face strong opposition from the restaurant and liquor lobbies, plus the gambling industry, because the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee also added an amendment that would ban smoking in casinos. Sen. Rob Marionneaux, the bill's sponsor, said he was led to introduce it after he was told to leave a bar in California because he was smoking a cigar.

"If the backward state of California can ban smoking in barrooms, then the great state of Louisiana can get on board," said Marionneaux, D-Livonia.

In the past, such strict smoking bans have not fared well in the Legislature. In 2003 lawmakers gave local governments power to restrict smoking. But the bill prohibited any local government from banning smoking in bars, gambling operations, tobacco vendors, hotel rooms and restaurants that serve liquor.

This year's effort by Marionneaux is complicated by Sen. Jay Dardenne's amendment removing an exemption for casinos. Dardenne noted that the gambling halls are often filled with cigarette smoke.

"I think if we're going to do this, we have to be consistent," said Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge.

The committee voted 3-1 to approve the amendment, with Marionneaux opposing it because he said it threatened the bill's final passage. Marionneaux said the bill was uncertain to pass the full Legislature even before the casino exemption was removed, and he expects strong lobbying against it from the state's riverboat casinos, the Harrah's casino in New Orleans, plus restaurants and bars that have video poker machines and off-track betting parlors, which would also be forced to ban all indoor smoking.

Dardenne "just added a whole lot of opposition that I didn't have before," Marionneaux said.

The committee passed the bill without a vote. It now moves to the full Senate.

The bill was modeled after a state law in Colorado and will get lobbying support from anti-smoking groups such as the American Stroke Association and the American Cancer Society.

Other businesses that would be required to ban customers from smoking include: bowling alleys, pool halls, grocery stores, day care centers and indoor sports arenas. Hotels and motels would have to have nonsmoking rooms make up 75 percent of their capacity.

The bill makes exceptions for limousines, retail tobacco shops, bars deemed "tobacco bars" and business' outdoor areas, such as restaurant patios.

Penalties would apply both to a customer who smokes in violation of the ban and a business that allows a customer to smoke.

A smoker convicted of violating the ban for the first time -- a misdemeanor -- would face a maximum penalty of a $500 fine and up to six months in jail. The owner of a business who allows smoking would also face a misdemeanor charge; conviction could bring a $50 fine.