BISMARCK – The two-year-old state law banning indoor smoking from most workplaces has “killed the business” of bingo parlors, said a lawmaker who proposed exempting them from the ban.

The drop-off in bingo players because of the smoking ban has, in turn, deprived charities such as the North Dakota Association for the Disabled of the funds it needs to offer services to state residents with disabilities, Rep. Dwight Wrangham, R-Bismarck, told the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday.

“Let bingo hall operators decide” whether to allow smoking in their places, he argued in presenting House Bill 1353.

He said it’s easier for people who don’t smoke to avoid bingo parlors and other smoky areas than it is for smokers to quit the addictive habit.

But a Bismarck nursing school student who works as a bar-restaurant server testified against the bill. Kayla Gartner said employees in places that once allowed smoking have benefited from the 2005 law. She said she could immediately tell there was an improvement in her health.

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