Casino’s Smoking Wing Clouds the Issue

In the back end of the Bicycle Club casino in Bell Gardens, beyond the noisy main gaming room and a massive marble waterfall is a smokers’ paradise: a gambling area where the state’s indoor smoking ban appears to have been lifted.

The casino’s new $1.8-million wing has solid wood and concrete walls and a louvered ceiling that opens with electric motors to allow smoke to drift up and out while gamblers happily puff away and bet big money on blackjack, pai gow poker and other card games.

Waitresses gladly bring matches, cigarettes and ashtrays right to the tables so gamblers can enjoy the two vices for hours at a stretch without having to get up.

Casino officials call it the Freedom Court and tout it as the state’s first full-time gambling area for smokers. But tobacco foes call it a subterfuge and insist that it violates the nearly 2-year-old state ban on smoking in bars and casinos.

The debate centers on the state’s vague definitions of an enclosed space, where smoking is banned, and an outdoor patio, where smoking is permitted. Depending on whether the Freedom Court survives any potential legal challenges, the Bicycle Club may set a precedent for other California casinos to follow.

Restaurants and bars throughout the state have added patios and courtyards to accommodate smokers. But anti-smoking activists say the Bicycle Club’s wing, which opened Aug. 6, is by far the most elaborate and permanent smoking structure to try to sidestep the indoor smoking ban.

Bicycle Club management says it is simply offering gamblers a way to legally smoke so they don’t take their business to casinos in Las Vegas and on Indian reservations where smoking is allowed.

“The games are lasting longer because the gamblers can smoke,” said Haig Kelegian, a Bicycle Club partner.

Judging by the crowds in the smoking wing, gamblers approve.

“It’s terrific, friend,” one cigarette-puffing gambler, who didn’t want to be identified, said after winning a big hand of blackjack in the smoking area. “They should have this in every casino.”

Foes of smoking disagree and say the Freedom Court creates a hazard for employees.

“It may be an attempt to get around the law, and that is unfortunate, because the law was adopted to protect the workers,” said Cynthia Harding, director of Los Angeles County’s Tobacco Control Program, which helped implement the smoking ban.

Kelegian rejected such criticism, saying construction of the smoking area was approved by the city of Bell Gardens, which is responsible for enforcing the ban locally. In addition, he said employees are given a choice of working in that area or elsewhere and are asked to sign a waiver saying they understand the potential hazards of secondhand smoke.

“No one is forced to work there,” he said.

Bell Gardens officials, however, are starting to take a second look.

City Atty. Arnoldo Beltran said this week that he is concerned about an anonymous letter he recently received--allegedly sent by casino employees who complained of having to work in the smoking area.

“We take this very seriously, and we are investigating it,” he said.

Activists say they plan to keep the pressure on Beltran and other city officials to try to close down the smoking area.

“We are concerned that it will set a precedent for any casino or restaurant or bar,” said Pat Etem, executive director of L.A. Link, a tobacco education program. She said her group has also received complaints from casino employees.

Anti-smoking activists and casino officials both say the matter will probably end up in court.

The state’s 1995 ban on smoking in restaurants was extended to bars and casinos Jan. 1, 1998, despite strong opposition from casino and tavern owners.

Kelegian said the Bicycle Club had lost about $10 million--20% of its business--since the ban took effect, because smokers often played only a few hands before leaving to smoke outside. Other smokers took their business to casinos on Indian reservations, he said.

Kelegian said he expects the Freedom Court to help the casino replace about half of that lost business.

On a recent afternoon, the smoking area was teeming with gamblers, about half of whom were puffing on cigarettes while praying for a winning hand.

“If you ask any smoker, they are going to say it’s a good idea,” said one gambler as he flicked his cigarette ash after playing pai gow poker, an Asian card game that uses dice. “I wish they would expand it.”

But another gambler, who declined to give his name because he said his wife doesn’t know about his gambling habit, has mixed feelings. He said that he can now gamble nonstop when he is on a winning streak but that he has also increased his smoking from one pack a day to four.

“To be honest, this is not good for me,” he said as he walked away with a lighted cigarette in his hand.

The court is stylishly designed with several waterfalls and a marble entrance. It includes 20 card tables for pai gow, pan and other Asian games.

The ceiling was built with white metal trestles that hold up the louvers, which open and shut with electronic motors. During rain storms, the louvers can close completely and act as gutters. Security cameras, ceiling fans, space heaters and color televisions hang from the trestles.

Cigarette smoke in the wing does not seem to linger long, but tobacco foes say it is still harmful to casino workers.

“Wherever there is smoke there is danger,” said Andrew Weisser, a spokesman for the American Lung Assn. of California.

In response to a legal challenge to the wording of the smoking ban, former state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren issued an opinion last year that defined an enclosed space as an area with walls and a roof.

Activists who have visited the Bicycle Club say the smoking area fits that definition.

Casino officials disagree. There are four walls, they say, but no roof, only louvers that open to let the sun in and the smoke out.

“It is a patio,” said Robert Carter, a casino partner.

Bicycle Club executives got the idea after visiting a smoking area with a louvered ceiling at a Hoff’s Hut restaurant in Long Beach.

But a Hoff’s Hut manager said the restaurant has banned smoking in that space since Long Beach officials received numerous complaints from patrons.

Kelegian said he did not know that smoking was banned at the restaurant but insisted that the Bicycle Club will continue to allow smoking at the Freedom Court until Bell Gardens or a judge orders the casino to stop.

Kelegian said the smoking area was endorsed by a federally appointed trustee who managed the casino after U.S. marshals seized the club in 1990 because of money-laundering there. Kelegian and a group of investors bought the controlling interest in the casino in April.

Lynn Wilson, executive director of the California Gaming Assn., said many card club owners are interested in building smoking areas but are waiting to see if the Bicycle Club encounters any legal challenges.

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt is already planning a smoking courtyard for the new $30-million casino he is building in Gardena.

“A lot of players like to smoke when they gamble, and when they can’t smoke, they play less or don’t play at all,” said Flynt’s attorney, Alan Isaacman.

The Normandie Casino in Gardena has a smoking patio, but it has only two tables and is reserved for special events, such as tournaments.

Recently, Ron Sarabi, general manager of the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, stopped by the Bicycle Club and said he was “drooling” at the idea of building a similar area.

But other casino operators say they will wait to see what happens at the Bicycle Club.

“There are a lot of legal issues,” said Robert Turner, executive host at the Crystal Park Casino in Compton.