Cigar Weekly

A Senate sponsor of the smoking ban bill says it has no loopholes for pubs, restaurants or casinos to reinvent themselves as cigar bars.

What the bill passed Wednesday by the state Senate does allow is an exemption for existing cigar bars where at least 10 percent of their gross revenue is generated from cigar sales.

On Thursday, a move to reconsider that vote never materialized in the Senate. Now the House must decide whether it concurs with a Senate amendment that lowers the penalty on bar owners who fail to notify patrons about the ban from a misdemeanor to a petty offense.

Should the House agree, it then goes to Gov. Mike Rounds' desk. If the governor's signature makes it law July 1, Republican Majority Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls said the only businesses that would be exempt are those cigar bars in existence as of Jan. 1 this year.

"You can't sense a business opportunity and start fresh today," Knudson said Thursday. "They have to have been in business and met the (gross sales) requirement as of Jan. 1."

In South Dakota, that's basically two businesses: Stogeez Cigar Lounge in Sioux Falls and the Deadwood Tobacco Co. and Cigar Bar. Stogeez owner Tim Kant said 14 percent to 16 percent of his business is cigar sales, or about 10,000 cigars sold a year. Vaughn Boyd said her Deadwood business "is 80 percent cigars and 20 percent beer and wine."

In lobbying for an exemption, Kant said cigar bars such as his had to agree not to allow cigarette smoking if the law passes.

'They got it pretty tight'

Knudson said what will be allowed in bars such as Kant's are cigars wrapped in tobacco, not paper, that are sold without filters and that are a certain size.

"They got it pretty tight," Kant said. "You can only smoke cigars or premium tobacco products in the cigar bars. You can't sell or smoke these cigars that look like cigarettes."

Even if they could convert to cigar bars, many in the bar business in Sioux Falls said they wouldn't.

"We don't have a cigar clientele. We're not a high-end bar," said Andy Lenz, owner of the Top Hat Bar and Lounge.

Trevor Kutz, a bartender at McNally's Irish Pub in Sioux Falls, said the bar sells cigars, but they don't come close to 10 percent of gross sales.

"I highly doubt you would see us converting even if we could," Kutz said.

If the House adopts the Senate amendment on dropping the penalty on bar owners from a misdemeanor to a petty offense, customers and bar owners would face $25 fines if caught smoking or allowing patrons to smoke inside a bar, restaurant or casino.

Dustin DeBoer, a deputy state's attorney for Minnehaha County, said such fines would involve civil, not criminal, proceedings. Police would have to cite a customer or owner on a smoking complaint, similar to the issuing of a citation for speeding or not wearing a seat belt.

If a person chose to contest the fine, he or she would go to court and have a trial, DeBoer said.

He added that bar owners and patrons probably wouldn't face fines for every cigarette smoked, but for every occurrence of someone smoking in a bar.

Bars could flout law - but will they?

His office has discussed the possibility of bar, casino or restaurant owners choosing to allow smoking in their establishments and just pay the fines, DeBoer said.

"It would basically become a cost-benefit analysis on the part of restaurants and bars," DeBoer said. "But the biggest thing about that is, if there are flagrant violations of the statute, when their alcohol licenses come up for renewal, those are things that can be taken into consideration."

At the Top Hat, Lenz said she wouldn't stoop to paying fines for smoking customers just to get them in the door. "It's coming up on spring and summer, when people can smoke outside," she said. "Besides, the law's the law. We wouldn't break it."

Knudson said he didn't think establishments would flout a smoking ban, either.

Besides, he said, "if it turns out to be abused, the Legislature will just come back and fix it."

Reach reporter Steve Young at 331-2306.

The penalties in the Senate-passed smoking ban differs from House version.
Senate: Violation of the ban is a petty offense and carries a $25 fine for patrons caught smoking or owners letting patrons smoke.
House: Patrons violating ban can be charged with petty offense. Bar owners allowing smoking face class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by 30 days in jail or $500 fine.