GRAND FORKS (AP) - The North Dakota Association for the Disabled says their 2005 earnings were down nearly 30 percent from 2004 because of smoking bans.

The NDAD, based in this city, was able to offer financial aid to disabled people who couldn't get similar help elsewhere until last summer.

Smoking bans enacted by the state and city last August dealt a crushing blow to NDAD's three bingo parlors, which have many smokers as customers, the organization says. The parlors had been the main source of funding for NDAD.

Bingo earnings last year were down to $884,000, nearly 30 percent lower than in 2003 - and that's with two quarters' worth of higher than expected earnings. During the third quarter, when the smoking bans started, earnings began dropping.

NDAD's three bingo parlors together earned less than $7,000 in the final quarter. The Bingo Palace in Grand Forks actually reported a loss of nearly $40,000. In the same period a year ago, the three parlors earned nearly $250,000.

Earnings could be far worse this year than last year.

"We've had some setbacks (in the past), but nothing quite this devastating," said the association's president and co-founder Ron Gibbens.

The financial aid budget is assuming the worst. For 2006, it expects to provide only $146,000 worth of aid compared to $753,000 in 2004.

"It's been tough telling people we can't help them with direct assistance," said Jeri Hietala, an NDAD case worker. "All of a sudden, our budget was gone.

Information from: Grand Forks Herald, http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/