Amendment sidetracks casino smoking ban

Publication Date: 2007-03-17

• Author:April M. Washington
• Publication:Rocky Mountain News

Lawmakers gutted a bill Friday that would have banned smoking in casinos, but sponsors are counting on lady luck to restore it next week.

The Senate voted 18-17 to amend the bill to say that if casinos are required to ban smoking then cigar bars and the smoking lounge at Denver International Airport also must ban it.

Those three locations are exempt under Colorado's no- smoking law.

Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, won his bid to alter the bill, arguing that the statewide smoking ban should extend to every workplace and that lawmakers should not be allowed to carve out "winners or losers."

"Perhaps what I've done will provide leverage to move for an across-the-board ban," he said.

But the bill's backers vowed to strip the "poison pill" amendment from House Bill 1269.

The Senate is expected to cast its final vote next week.