Casino czar spending big to fight smoking ban

By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times

WINDOW ROCK, July 14, 2011

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Bob Winter, CEO of the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, said he is planning to be in Window Rock next week when the Navajo Nation Council holds its summer session to air the enterprise's concern about a smoking ban at the casinos.

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A proposed compromise would allow the ban but not until the enterprise pays back to the tribe the hundreds of millions it has borrowed to build the casinos.

Winter said that would be acceptable but the question is whether the Council would go along with that. The gaming enterprise has been spending heavily in recent weeks to get its message across to Navajo leaders and the public.

It has spent some $6,000 on full-page advertisements in the Navajo Times and another $1,500 on radio spots on KTNN.

The enterprise has also hired a public relations firm to help develop the advertising at a cost Winter estimated at somewhere south of $10,000.

"Our biggest expense was probably in staff time," he said, estimating that between $35,000 and $40,000 has been spent in-house, including the staff artist who has been helping create PowerPoint presentations.

The advertising focuses on the jobs and money that would be lost and its intent "is to clear up the misrepresentation that is being put out there," Winter said.



It does not address the health concerns fueling the ban proposal, and instead concentrates on the assertions of anti-smoking groups that the gaming enterprise is, in addition to ignoring the health danger from secondhand smoke, exaggerating the economic impact on casino revenues from a smoking ban.

"That's not true," Winter said. "The consequences will be just as we say they will be."

All but one casino in Arizona and New Mexico allow smoking and Winter said as long as the others allow it, to be competitive the Navajos would have to allow it. He's particularly concerned about the impact a ban would have at Northern Edge Navajo Casino, where patrons have easy access to two Ute casinos that allow smoking.

As for Northern Edge, Winter said the plan is still to open the new casino in January 2012 and hire 480 workers. That's around 100 more than currently are employed at Fire Rock Navajo Casino.

A manager and a human resources director are already on board and Winter said a job fair will be held in Upper Fruitland Chapter, site of the new casino, in August.

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