Fair Board Votes to Make Betting Halls Smoke-Free : Tobacco: Officials say they were forced to follow the state directive. Up to 80% of the regular Watch and Wager gamblers are smokers.

As part of a state mandate to make state-owned buildings smoke-free, the Ventura County Fair Board voted Tuesday to ban smoking from the fairgrounds’ three off-track betting halls.

The ban will go into effect Dec. 31. Patrons who smoke at the Watch and Wager buildings will be required to step outside to light up, fair officials said.

“We are trying to provide a facility for a wide variety of patrons,” Fair Board member Sandi Bush said. “We want them to come and we want them to feel comfortable.”

Although up to 80% of regular gamblers at the fairgrounds are smokers, none of them came to protest the smoking ban at Tuesday’s meeting. With little discussion, the board voted 6 to 0 in favor of the ban. Board members Rob Frost, Mike LeBeck and Charles Schwabauer were absent.

Bush, chairman of the Watch and Wager committee that recommended the smoking ban, said local officials had no choice but to follow the state’s directive. “We are complying with the law,” she said in an interview following the meeting.

Gov. Pete Wilson in February issued an executive order banning smoke in all indoor premises leased or owned by the state, except buildings controlled by the courts, the Legislature or the state’s two university systems.

At the fairgrounds, all the buildings except two of the Watch and Wager facilities are already smoke-free, fair officials said. In those buildings, gamblers watch big-screen televisions to see simultaneous broadcasts of horse races at various tracks around the state and wager on any races they choose.

In March, the board adopted a policy that set aside one of the three gambling halls at the fairgrounds for nonsmokers. But patrons complained that the nonsmoking gambling hall is not up to the standards of the other two halls that permit smoking. Specifically, they said the nonsmoking building has no restrooms, has automated machines instead of live tellers to take bets and has a worse selection of food and beverages.

The ban will primarily affect the 500 regular gamblers who wager almost daily at the fairgrounds. Employees at the gambling halls said the number of smokers could be as high as eight out of 10 gamblers.

Ventura County Fair Manager Mike Paluszak, who is a smoker himself, said fair officials are considering installing televisions outside the gambling halls for patrons who want to light up.

A new Watch and Wager building is scheduled to be built and ready by December, 1994, and it may have some facilities for smokers, Paluszak said.

Some of the gamblers who smoke have grumbled about the ban and have threatened to stop going to the fairgrounds. But fair officials said they are confident patrons will continue to flock to the betting facilities.

Off-track betting is the fairgrounds’ major revenue source. Last year, it brought in $2.5 million of the fairgrounds’ $5.9-million budget.

“I don’t think it’s going to keep them from coming back,” board President Diane Starr said. “I think most people are pretty good sports. Smoking is being banned all over the place now. I think the smokers have given up.”