Casinos Curb Comped Cocktails

Free cocktails are fast becoming a thing of the past at gambling casinos across the Midwest, the Associated Press reported June 15. 

A new law in Ohio bans comped alcoholic beverages and prohibits the sale of alcohol past 2:30 a.m. The state joins Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas in ending the free-drink incentive for gamblers.

“I don’t want to stereotype,” said Doug Scoles, executive director of the Ohio chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one of the organizations that championed the bill, “but I do believe Midwest culture supports not serving alcohol freely, on a 24/7 basis. It’s seen for the damage it does to communities.”

The Ohio Restaurant Association was among the law’s more unlikely supporters. But business, not morals, a spokesman said, was their motivator: Free drinks keep gamblers inside; banning them pushes them out to local bars and restaurants.

Even where legislators aren’t getting involved, casinos have been curtailing freebies. Resorts in Las Vegas comped $310.7 million in drinks in 2009, down two percent from the previous year, while total comps in Atlantic City fell 5 percent, to $1.55 billion.