Edward Morgan (photo at right), who represents Orleans County on the 17-member board, said the powers-that-be at Batavia Downs Gaming “need to move ahead” in case the smoking waiver now in force is terminated.
Currently, Batavia Downs Gaming has an indoor enclosed smoking room only.
“The two-year waiver could be gone any day,” Morgan said at today’s board meeting. “We need to be prepared, even if it’s just a small heated outside area with no machines in it.”
Morgan said he visited the Del Lago Resort & Casino in Waterloo recently to check out its smoking accommodations. He reported that a 50- by 150-foot area, featuring about 150 gaming machines, has been installed outside – “exposed to all the elements."
“From the looks of it, people seem to use it to smoke and then go back inside to play,” he said, adding that he saw about a dozen people in the area during his midweek midday stop.
Morgan pointed to Batavia Downs Gaming surveys that reveal “how important it is to some of our patrons to be able to smoke at a machine.”
Scott Kiedrowski, vice president/operations, said that although a tri-county commission has approved a waiver for another two years, “there’s always a fear that something might change in the health department regulations or state regulations and we could lose our smoking designation.”
“A lot of casinos in the area and throughout New York and other states might have some stringent smoking requirements,” he said. “They have some outdoor areas, called smoke gardens, if you will, that are heated and covered with games outside … to have the ability to have smoking on the property but not inside the building.”
Morgan said it would be prudent for the board and management to start looking at options, including the location of an outdoor smoking area.
“Even if it was outdoors and heated, with no machines,” he reiterated.
