From Indian Country:

A bill to ban smoking at Indian casinos on tribal land burned out a day before Connecticut’s legislative session ended at midnight May 7.

The bill sought to repeal a current liquor permit exemption that allows smoking at both Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun. The exemption was part of a 2003 state law that, recognizing tribal sovereignty, banned smoking at restaurants and bars everywhere else in Connecticut.

From beginning to end, the bill’s process was fraught with the machinations of state politics and power, competing political interests and, toward the end of the session, the issue of a growing deficit.

The bill was promoted by the United Auto Workers, which won a victory at Foxwoods last November when a majority of poker dealers voted for unionization, but was opposed by other unions, notably the 16 unions of New London-Norwich Building and Construction Trades Council. Both the UAW and the Trades Council are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Senate Bill 419 came close to passage. On May 2, the Democrat-controlled Senate voted 24 – 11, with one abstention, to adopt it. But, a day before the end of the session, the Democrat-majority House of Representatives decided not to bring the bill up for a vote. 

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