Bingo attendance goes up in smoke

The oppression of smokers continues in our country. And some of the old smokers have decided they're not going get pushed around by the new politically correct anti-smoking laws. Apparently, they're so dedicated to having a smoke that they're willing to forego the one of the most popular rituals of the Golden Years: bingo night.

That's right, folks. Minnesota's bingo halls have experienced a 13-percent drop in attendance since the smoking ban went into affect last October. At one American Legion post, the usual bingo night crowd of 50 to 75 players has dwindled to around 30.

Now that bingo players have moved on, the charitable organizations that profit from the bingo proceeds are denied a significant source of revenue. Last year, the bingo game at a Mississippi Elks Lodge generated $23,000 that supported a shelter for abused women, a drug awareness program, and a camp for young cancer survivors. The bingo chairman at that lodge is convinced that they "wouldn't raise nearly that much if we banned smoking." It's the law of unintended consequences at work (as it so often is with liberal do-gooder laws).

But don't for a second believe that people have chosen the vice of smoking over the vice of innocent gambling. Hardly. Bingo crowds have merely moved on to other gambling venues where smoking is permitted. In the case of Minnesota, the American Legion bingo players of Fergus Falls have migrated to the casinos on Indian reservations or across the state line to Fargo, North Dakota, where veteran's organizations like American Legion posts are exempt from the state smoking ban.

Americans want their personal freedom, and they'll get it anyway they can – ban or no ban.