[winter-rabbit]

A friend of mine hooked up with quite a few chicks and met his wife, because of designated outdoor smoking areas.

It's a good thing for smokers!! Haaa

Originally Posted by WVREDLEG

Frequent tourist here (8-10 trips a year avg over 15 yrs).

I don't care about smokers burning one or 20 on the casino floor because I choose where I play, and I choose not to sit down at a table or a machine by a person smoking. The smoker should be free to slowly poison themselves, but don't have the right or privilege to poison me, a dealer, a server, or anyone sharing the air with them.

As a tobacco user, I perpetually rationalize and justify my addiction--this is not sarcasm. I chewed for 35 years (started at 12). I went from a $200/month habit to a $25 month habit, but it is still a tobacco-based addiction, just a significantly reduced dose. I miss it and wish I was back to full speed...it is a deep and insidious master. Over the years, my example to my two children was that tobacco is okay, and both of them smoke as young adults...yet another cost of my selfish habit. I don't have the right to engage in my tobacco use wherever or whenever I want. Just as it disgusts me to have a rude smoker holding their smoke a foot from my face, it is nauseating to see a dude spitting brown juice into an empty water bottle.

So to the smokers who will debate that my anecdote doesn't apply because it is smokeless vs. smoke, we can agree to disagree--my story is not a part of a personal crusade. Tobacco is a dirty habit. It is a slow death by poisoning, and I get it that for some, the risk is worth it. Smoking while gambling will not be a deal-breaker for most. I see poker players standing just outside the poker room burning one--you adapt when necessary and "scratch the itch". In the future, it may take smokers a few more minutes to walk to a sanctioned smoker area to light up. On the other side of the issue, smoking on casino floors have not driven the non-smoking gambler away. Even if I choose to gamble in the non-smoking areas of the casino I frequent, I am still a non-smoker choosing to gamble in a smoke-permitted place.

Don't expect an expanded ban in Las Vegas to generate too much outrage in the smoker community. We, the consumers of tobacco products are dwindling, and do not have a right to use it anywhere...it was never anything more than a privilege.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by EA

The longhorn is awesome. I don't care about the smoke. 5 bucks for country fried steak? Yes please.

They have a larger size chicken fried steak platter for a couple bucks more. Totally worth it. If I have one of those, I don't have to eat again all day.

Originally Posted by WVREDLEG

As a tobacco user, I perpetually rationalize and justify my addiction--this is not sarcasm.

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I don't have the right to engage in my tobacco use wherever or whenever I want. Just as it disgusts me to have a rude smoker holding their smoke a foot from my face, it is nauseating to see a dude spitting brown juice into an empty water bottle.

This is an example of the "conscientious smoker" that I have referenced throughout this thread. I totally get it that nicotine is a very, very hard master. And it's not even a particularly fun master. Caffeine is a more fun addiction, for instance. (And it's a relatively benign addiction. My withdrawal symptom if I quit drinking coffee will be a two-day headache. That's a walk in the park compared to killing the nicotine monkey.)

It truly grinds my gears when a special snowflake suggests that smoking cigarettes equates to freedom and liberty. Since when is addiction "freedom?" Addiction is slavery. I know that all too well. And I can prove that smokers do not have the right to smoke -- it's simple. If smokers had any rights, they could sue Northwest Airlines, the New York Yankees, or Spago for being denied their "basic right" to smoke. Once a property owner says, "You may not smoke here," that's that.

We're going to have this exact conversation again some years from now when stoners become brazen enough to expect to smoke marijuana in public. "We have the right," they'll scream. At least there will be enough precedent with tobacco use to shut that down in a hurry.

[tijlover]

For us smokers, we can be eternally grateful we don't have a well-diversified economy in Las Vegas and we have the casino moguls essentially running Nevada and Clark County. Ever notice when MGM or Caesar's wishes to add some new expansion/distraction? Yup! Always a unanimous decision by the Clark County Commissioners!

If their cost accountants had figured, long ago, legalized marijuana or in-house brothels would have improved their bottom line, which neither will, their slaves (the legislators in Carson City along with the Governor) and their Clark County Commissioner slaves would have bent over backwards to make them happy and more profitable, anything to create more jobs!

The cumulative casino moguls in Las Vegas could be personified by the likes of Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago!

I trust their constant-eye-on-the-bottom-line cost accountants on the smoking issues!

One of the greater aspects of posting on City-Data.com, is you have a certain timeframe to delete your post, and if you don't take advantage of it, it remains permanent, unchangeable! So for the prophetic posters on this issue, this thread, some day, may be resurrected, someone quotes from your post, and? There could be some mud thrown in a poster's face!

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by tijlover

So for the prophetic posters on this issue, this thread, some day, may be resurrected, someone quotes from your post, and? There could be some mud thrown in a poster's face!

Fine with me. I have public opinion and precedent on my side.

When New York went smoke-free, Joe Jackson (one of my favorite musicians) moved to London. When London went smoke free, he moved to Berlin. When Berlin goes smoke free, maybe he'll move to Las Vegas. But eventually the only places to move will be the Middle East and North Africa (they'll never quit) and China.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Fine with me. I have public opinion and precedent on my side.

When New York went smoke-free, Joe Jackson (one of my favorite musicians) moved to London. When London went smoke free, he moved to Berlin. When Berlin goes smoke free, maybe he'll move to Las Vegas. But eventually the only places to move will be the Middle East and North Africa (they'll never quit) and China.

Or, down the road, California! You know what monkey-see-monkey-do, trendy Californian's are, their favorite movie stars pick up the habit again, and there they go, monkey-seeing-monkey-doing!

Being a smoker, I cancelled out CA trips for the longest time, fearing I couldn't smoke anywhere over there, or have someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat while smoking, but surprise-surprise! 2 trips to San Francisco, 4 trips to L.A. this last spring/summer and I ran into any number of smokers, at the rail/bus stops, was able to find 2 balconied motels where I could smoke, and equally as easy as staying in L.A. I never felt ostracized for smoking anywhere over there, except Nimby-infested Santa Monica!

Californian's have other things to worry about now: Will the rains come this Winter/Spring and will there be enough to water to drink and bathe in!

[winter-rabbit]

I don't have problems with smokers. But the smoke always find a way into my nose when someone comes back from smoking somewhere else.

It's like someone went into the restroom to fart, they come back and you still smell residual fart.

Originally Posted by tijlover

Or, down the road, California! You know what monkey-see-monkey-do, trendy Californian's are, their favorite movie stars pick up the habit again, and there they go, monkey-seeing-monkey-doing!

Being a smoker, I cancelled out CA trips for the longest time, fearing I couldn't smoke anywhere over there, or have someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat while smoking, but surprise-surprise! 2 trips to San Francisco, 4 trips to L.A. this last spring/summer and I ran into any number of smokers, at the rail/bus stops, was able to find 2 balconied motels where I could smoke, and equally as easy as staying in L.A. I never felt ostracized for smoking anywhere over there, except Nimby-infested Santa Monica!

Californian's have other things to worry about now: Will the rains come this Winter/Spring and will there be enough to water to drink and bathe in!

[arch.stanton]

My daughter was on a bowling league for kids and they bowled inside a casino. The lanes were located near a bar. The smoke from the bar would drift into the lanes. Totally unacceptable in my opinion. The bar should be enclosed in glass or something.

Here's another scenario. The buffet in a casino is "smoke-free", but again all the smoke from the casino drifts into the buffet. The buffet should also be enclosed in glass.

[KonaKat]

Originally Posted by winter-rabbit

Because casinos are open to the public, the government has to protect the public. Inhaling second hand smoke is not an option. Most often city health department is involved in this law enforcement. It is no different than protecting consumers from the ill-effects of inproper food handling at restaurants.

You can always have a private (membership only) club that is all about indoor smoking.

This is not some sort of freedom taking if you ask me. When government takes away a right to something optional, then it is taking away personal freedom.

Yes I am a non-smoker and non-gambler.

While along this topic, I don't agree with government banning super-size sodas and hi-caffeine (think Red Bull x 4 concentration) drinks in NYC.

Why is it okay to ban one "evil" and not another? If parents want to let their kids eat crap food and drink sodas, why is that not okay but telling them they can't smoke someplace is okay?

A curious conundrum

[ScoopLV]

Eating crap food and drinking soda affects others. But it affects people in the "this person can't fit in his or her own airplane seat" kind of way. (And that's truly annoying. I've had to deal with the same morbidly obese woman who likes the same bands twice now. She could not fit in a single concert seat if her life depended on it. Her strategy was to employ passive-aggressive behavior. That doesn't work with me. I'm an immovable object. Think "Hodor" from Game of Thrones.)

Being morbidly obese on an airplane is not the same as being a smoker on an airplane. (Back when smoking was allowed.) I've been there for both. It's not the same league. It's not the same stadium. It's not even the same SPORT. The morbidly obese are flipping annoying. But they annoy one or two people. Smokers annoy the entire airplane. I've flown transcontinental on a smoking flight to the Middle East. (Words cannot describe.) I'd rather deal with someone who is morbidly obese than a smoker -- when I'm next to one or the other on an airplane.

[clutchcargo777]

Scoop, you're arguing a battle that you already won. No one here has said smoking should be allowed on planes. If you want to focus on airplanes, then lets discuss eCigs on them. The airlines have nearly unilaterally banned them on flights.
Why? They serve steaming cups of coffee that emit nearly the same thing.

Look at the big picture. Banner types will always need to ban something. They are already moving into the food arena. I would think this would at least start to effect you.

Seriously, eventually something you like will be targeted.