By Rachel Whitten
July 28, 2010

(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan. – Quitting smoking cold turkey has not produced economic withdrawal pains in Kansas, at least for the first month of the ban.

Although the statewide smoking ban went into effect on July 1, many restaurants that might have been seriously affected already had city ordinances or self imposed rules preventing smoking.

Restaurants like Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, which has locations in both the Kansas and Missouri portions of Kansas City were not affected because the city of Overland Park already had an ordinance preventing smoking in place for years.

Others, like Bo Lings a Chinese food restaurant with locations on both sides of the state line, have not allowed smoking within their walls voluntarily.

Don Sayler, with the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association, a lobbyist group, estimated about 70 percent of their members were already non-smoking establishments.

Furthermore, the Hospitality Association has not received any word from its members about how the smoking ban is affecting business.

“We’ve not heard much either way, good or bad,” Sayler said. “So many were already dealing with a ban that there weren’t that many more [who were affected].

Sayler said that although Wichita had already had a smoking ban in place on July 1, the city’s ban had a compromise that allowed restaurant owners to designate certain rooms for smoking. But the statewide ban supersedes the city law, so that’s one thing the Association did hear rumblings about.

“They lost a lot of money,” Sayler said.

Although the Hospitality Association had been against any smoking ban for years, in January at their membership meeting, they decided to take a neutral stance on the issue.

Sayler pointed out the hypocrisy of the state exempting its state-owned casino at Boot Hill from the ban in order stay competitive with privately run casinos located on Indian Reservations, which are not subject to state law concerning this issue.

“Obviously the state thinks it affects businesses, because it allows smoking at Boot Hill. They just quantify what we’ve been saying for years, it does affect business operations,” Sayler said.  “However, when you go statewide it does lessen it some because they can’t go anywhere to smoke.”

Since it’s been less than a month since the implementation of the new law, it’s still too early to know if it will affect insurance rates, both on property and casualty sides, and health insurance.

Bob Hanson with the Kansas Insurance Association said the risk for businesses that allowed smoking was probably already built in to the underwriting process for determining their premiums before the ban went into effect.

“Whether the ban would change those underwriting determinations remains to be seen,” Hanson said.

As to health insurance, Hanson said it there’s no way to know if a Kansan would quit smoking because of the ban, which would hypothetically provide the opportunity for that underwriting risk to be eliminated from a health policy.