Fairground Hopes Off-Track Betting Is More Addictive Than Smoking : Recreation: Gamblers at Watch and Wager halls may find cigarettes no longer welcome after a board vote today.

Willy Tender arrived at Ventura County’s fairgrounds with a racing form under his arm, cash in his wallet and a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

As he pored over the names of hundreds of horses at the tables of the off-track betting hall, Tender took long draws on his cigarette.

“Gambling, booze and cigarettes,” Tender said with a long exhale. “It’s a perfect match.”

Soon, that match may go up in smoke.

The Ventura County Fair Board will vote today on a proposal to ban smoking from the fairgrounds’ three Watch and Wager halls.

The plan passed unanimously through the board’s Watch and Wager committee, despite the fact that a large percentage of the establishment’s patrons are smokers.

“I think that public facilities have a responsibility to provide an environment that is free of smoke,” said board member Dennis Orrock. “Given the climate and the scientific evidence, it seems to be the appropriate thing to do.”

While Orrock estimated that fewer than half of the gambling hall’s patrons smoke, some employees at the hall said the number of smokers could be as high as 80% of the 500 regulars who wager daily.

Last Friday, most of the main building’s betting crowd sat at tables in the area currently designated for smokers. They said such a ban would touch off an outcry by off-track gambling’s regular patrons.

“If there’s one thing you can bet on, it’s that I’m not coming back here if I can’t smoke,” said Minny Schendel, a Thousand Oaks resident who visits the hall three days a week.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “They have a building set aside for nonsmokers, they have a special nonsmoking section, now they want to push us all the way out.”

In March, the board adopted a policy that restricted smoking to certain areas of the facility. Currently, the fairgrounds has a nonsmoking building with automated betting services and a nonsmoking lounge in part of the main hall. Smoking is allowed in the rest of the main hall and in the Turf Club, an upscale betting room with food service and a bar.

Art Amelio, assistant manager of the fairgrounds, said the tightening restrictions were inevitable, because a state mandate requires all state-owned buildings to be smoke-free by Dec. 31.

“What they’re going to have to do is step outside,” Amelio said.

Several of the hall’s patrons said they would do more than step outside.

“I’m going to walk out the door and never come back,” Schendel said. “I’ll go to Santa Barbara or to the track.”

“If this passes,” added Ventura resident Ted Gordon, “you’ll be reading about the crash of the fairgrounds.”

Gordon said the fairgrounds should have surveyed the regular patrons to see how a ban would affect turnout.

Last year, off-track betting accounted for $2.5 million of the fairgrounds’ $5.9-million budget.

Fairgrounds officials who support the plan are betting that gambling is more addictive than cigarettes.

“We may suffer a decrease initially,” Orrock said. “But those people who like to play the horses will keep coming back to play.”

Orrock said a new off-track betting facility scheduled for a December groundbreaking may have special facilities for smokers.

Moe Ortiz, a nonsmoker at the betting hall, said he agreed with Orrock.

“I don’t think it will hurt their business in the long run,” Ortiz said. “These guys are gamblers. It will take more than a smoking ban to keep them away.”

Asked if he approved of the policy, Ortiz said: “I don’t care if they smoke or don’t smoke. If this place keeps taking my money, I’m never coming back.”