WAR ON TOBACCO: BARS UNPLUG LOTTERY MACHINES TO PROTEST BAN

SAN FRANCISCO -- Some bar owners are so mad about a law banning smoking at
their establishments that they're unplugging lottery machines to send the
state a message: If you won't let customers light up, we won't sell
tickets.

In the past two weeks, day-long and week-long lottery boycotts have been
organized in the city of Tracy, and in Sonoma, Humboldt and Riverside
counties. In addition, organizers are trying to put together a 24-hour
blackout of the keno-like Hot Spot game on Feb. 2, propietors said.

"We just shut them down to show how upset we are about not allowing our
smoking customers to come in," said Rod Ridout, owner of AA Bar & Grill in
Eureka who turned off his machine Monday.

"We felt this would be the one way the state would pay attention to us.
Without us being turned on or taking people's money and running it through,
there's no income for the state," he said.

The California Lottery, which gives a large percentage of its income to
education, sent $757 million to schools last year and has given schools $9
billion since it began in 1985. All ticket sellers are given a machine that
allows them to plug in the numbers players request for games such as Super
Lotto, Fantasy 5, Daily 3 and more.

The boycott won't do any good, though, lottery spokeswoman Norma Minaf
said. With more than 19,000 ticket distributors in the state, the drop in
sales so far has been negligible.

And retailers only hurt themselves because they have to meet sales quotas,
she added. If they turn their machines off for any length of time, they
won't meet those requirements and their machines will be taken away.

What's more, Minaf said, retailers get to keep 6 percent of their sales so
they're emptying their own pockets.

"It's been very small, basically we see no effect on sales," Minaf said.
"The only thing this is doing is inconveniencing lottery customers who will
have to go elsewhere to purchase their tickets."

O'Rourke said a statewide boycott would make a difference, though. And he
is determined to make it happen because his business has been hurt by the
smoking ban.

"It's killing me," he said. "It's a matter of rights. My customers aren't
criminals and for an officer of the law to walk in and give them a citation
and treat them like crimnals isn't right.

"We're just going to shut the lottery down until we get some relief from
the state on this smoking deal."