Officials at Harrah’s New Orleans Casino said although it had more visitors in May 2015 than the previous year, the new citywide smoking ban, which went into effect April 22, led to a 16 percent decline in revenue, from .8 million to .1 million. They noted numbers for April were steady until the ban went into effect, then dropped 15 percent.
The New Orleans City Council passed the ban unanimously in January.
In a statement, the casino said: “Although Harrah’s disagrees with the Smoke-Free Ordinance, it has operated in compliance with it since the ordinance went into effect and will continue to do so. However, the financial impact of the ordinance is already being felt on our operations. Today, the Louisiana State Gaming Control Board released May revenue reports which confirmed a 16 percent decrease in revenue in May 2015 compared to May 2014 for Harrah’s New Orleans.”
The statement continued: “May was the first full month of operations with the ban in place and gaming revenue was down 16 percent to the prior year, May 2014, and down 5 percent to the prior month, April 2015. The smoking ban took effect April 22, and for the month of April, gaming revenues were down 5 percent to prior year, with the entire decline coming over the last nine days of the month. Compared to April 2014, gaming revenues over the last nine days of the month were down 15 percent.”
Dr. Michael Johnson, director of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, also issued a statement: ” I’m surprised that an organization like Harrah’s, who proudly promotes its community support and employee health benefits, is continuing to try to equate any of its losses to the current smoke-free ordinance. Put simply, the ordinance has been in effect for less than two months, absolutely not enough time to evaluate its impact on business, and its entire purpose is to better the health of our entire workforce, musicians, community and visitors.”
Harrah’s spokeswoman Jade Brown Russell said, “We are currently experiencing greater declines from our local business, while casinos in surrounding jurisdictions are enjoying record highs.” She said slot machine revenue is particularly hard hit and that the revenue decline is “consistent” with the impact other casinos have experienced when smoking bans have been enacted.
Prior to the ordinance, Harrah’s officials told the city council a similar smoking ban in Illinois led to a 20 percent drop in revenue. They said New Orleans could see sales tax revenue decline by more than $500,000. After the ban was passed, Harrah’s lobbyists worked the Louisiana legislature to attempt to have the city exempt the casino. Harrah’s was one of more than 50 companies that sued New Orleans a few days before the ban went into effect, but later pulled out of the lawsuit.
