Charity revenue is going up in smoke

CBC Ottawa ^ | 31 July 2002

[SheLion]

Ottawa - Charities across Ottawa are hurting because of the city's smoking ban.

Groups that once got a $1000 per month from bingo are now getting less than $300.

Clubs are reporting a steep loss of revenue because smokers are staying away from bingo halls.

Some organizations are saying the city should compensate them for their losses. The Boys and Girls' isn't the only club hurting from bingo shortfalls.

In Blackburn, Arnold Dashney's junior hockey club is scrambling for cash. Dashney says he can't believe what's happened.

"Bingo players smoke. I thought they would have come back after they sat out for a while," says Dashney. "I thought they would have been back into the frame of mind to play bingo with no smoke but they didn't come back."

Charities say they have nowhere to turn for more cash. The high-tech meltdown has weakened corporate donations in the city and there's only so much local groups can expect from small business.

[SheLion]

Groups that once got a $1000 per month from bingo are now getting less than $300. Dashney says the $20,000 his group expected last year has dwindled to perhaps $6,000 this year.

The ANTI'S could care LESS. They got THEIR way!!!!!!!

[SheLion]

Clubs are reporting a steep loss of revenue because smokers are staying away from bingo halls.

[patton]

"Bingo players smoke. I thought they would have come back after they sat out for a while," says Dashney. "I thought they would have been back into the frame of mind to play bingo with no smoke but they didn't come back."

Plato told him...

and general (yes, ma'am!) sherman told him...

It took a nipponized bit
of the old sixth avenue el
in the top of his head
to tell him

[SheLion]

Well, like the sign says:

They thought it would happen!

[Great Dane]

A year after the law took effect the smokers are still staying away, Council said in three months all will be back, the smokers will adjust....... no they won't.

City Council is soooo pi.... off that this issue is still on the front burner, sooner or later they will have to revisit.

City Council is also busy trying to talk sorounding small towns into adopting the same laws, but they have all seen whay happened in Ottawa.

[patton]

plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

[stands2reason]

"HA-ha!"---Nelson Muntz, "The Simpson's"

[Free State Four]

Oh, gee. I'm so surprised! Actions have consequences! Go figure!! fsf

[patton]

I think that we should adopt "plato told" as the FR Smokers Club Motto. It is sooooo fitting.

[patton]

There is so much in there.

unintended consequences,
protectionism, ...

[SheLion]

You lost me.......

[patton]

The poem is by ee cummings, about war. He makes the point that "war is hell", but no one will listen (plato told him...).

The "nipponized bit" refers to the Chicago elevated subway - it was dismantled and sold to the Japanese (Nippon) immediatly prior to WWII, as scrap iron. They melted it down for munitions, which they then lobbed against the US (Pearl Harbor).

It is very much like smokers saying, "Your business will suffer..."

But no one listens.

[Bahbah]

No, they don't listen. As a FReeper history note, it was my grandfather, James McGinley, who introduced the elevated train legislation in the Illinois legislature.

[patton]

To build it, or to tear it down and sell it to the Japanese?

[speekinout]

City Council is also busy trying to talk sorounding small towns into adopting the same laws, but they have all seen whay happened in Ottawa.

You mean the City Council banned smoking at Bingo games, even though the surrounding towns didn't???
What were they planning to do? Build guard stations so no one could leave town on Bingo nights?
I'll bet those small towns have seen a nice increase in Bingo revenues. They're not going to change.

[Great Dane]

You mean the City Council banned smoking at Bingo games, even though the surrounding towns didn't??? What were they planning to do? Build guard stations so no one could leave town on Bingo nights? I'll bet those small towns have seen a nice increase in Bingo revenues. They're not going to change.

Yes, thats excactly what I mean, the City has already bailed the bingo halls out to the tune of a million and a half, leaks has it they are still giving the halls money, just to keep them quiet.

And for the first time, bingo halls in the outlying areas are advertising on TV.

[Publius6961]

Those perky unintended consequences!

and the worst is yet to come

[Publius6961]

Is that the whole poem in reply 6?

If not, would you be kind enough to post it?

[RikaStrom]

"I thought they would have been back into the frame of mind to play bingo with no smoke but they didn't come back."

He didn't really think all that much, did he?

Perhaps now they will own up to the fact that actions have consequences, and they've just stepped in the doo doo big time.

[Publius6961]

Well!
I do trust that they are getting the revenue from the tobacco "settlement".

after all it was "free money"