Bingo crowds smaller after smoking ban

The atmosphere is a little clearer, but fewer people seem to be taking in the air at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1298 on bingo nights.
One week after the veterans organization voted to go smoke-free for nights when it hosts charitable gaming events, attendance for those events - which are held to raise money for the local post - has fallen off noticeably.
Malcolm Cherry, past quartermaster for the VFW, said the post is now holding charitable gaming two nights a week after years of doing it weekly.
"I don't know at this point by averaging the two nights together if we're at about the same amount of income as we used to be," Cherry said.
The VFW and American Legion Post 23 were involved in a months-long legal tangle with the city over the ordinance banning smoking in public buildings.
Both veterans organizations claimed that the ordinance should not apply to their facilities, claiming in legal documents that they were private organizations that catered specifically to members and their guests.
Cherry claimed in affidavits and courtroom testimony that the ordinance had a harmful effect on both organizations, driving down attendance at charitable gaming events and reducing the revenue each organization saw from gaming.
City police issued multiple citations at the VFW and Legion posts, but a ruling last month from Warren District Court Judge Brent Potter that dismissed one of the citations issued at the American Legion post led to an agreement in which the city would stop enforcing the citation at both facilities.
After the court victory, the VFW's membership voted last week to go smoke-free, and the American Legion will entertain a similar vote Jan. 25.
Cherry said the vote to go smoke-free was taken to prevent further controversy, as well as a decision that should have been the post's to make from the beginning.
"I'm still of the opinion that the City Commission should revisit this thing," Cherry said. "After all, they did revisit the fireworks ordinance and I'd like to see if they wouldn't reconsider just doing away with that smoking ban and leaving it up to the business owners as it should have been in the first place."
If low attendance persists at the VFW, Cherry said the post will consider additional fundraisers, such as having a band fronted by one of the post's members play regular performances.
Cherry also mused about the possibility of putting the VFW post's kitchen to use for a pop-up restaurant.
"We do have a fully equipped kitchen out there," Cherry said. "We feed the National Guard and the Army Reserve all the time on their weekend drills; we can feed other people, too."