[logline]

As a non-smoker, I have a choice of many casinos to spend my money. If one decided to go smoke-free, guess which one gets my business? It's a zero-sum game. With declining numbers of smokers in the general population, this is bound to happen sooner or later.

[Wyndsong71]

Originally Posted by logline

As a non-smoker, I have a choice of many casinos to spend my money. If one decided to go smoke-free, guess which one gets my business? It's a zero-sum game. With declining numbers of smokers in the general population, this is bound to happen sooner or later.

While numbers of smokers in the general population may be declining, you're not accounting for those who don't consider themselves smokers, but like to smoke while gambling or in social situations. There are a LOT more of them who are not being counted in polls and surveys. About half of my friends insist that they don't smoke, but when we're at a party or whatever, they are smoking. If they are drinking or gambling, they are smoking.

People like the "Sin City" vibe and atmosphere and will continue to do the things that are "bad" for them here and want to continue to have someplace to be "bad". That will never change.

[kcoliver]

Boy do I agree with Wyndsong71...many of our friends don't consider themselves smokers but they DO smoke at parties and while they are gambling. BTW, didn't I just read where the number of smokers in NYC increased this last year in spite of very expensive cigarettes? Anyone?

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by 9162

Only 18% of all adults smoke, it is long overdue to get rid of it entirely.

So if car ownership, one day, dips to 18%, and the bicyclists take over, then let's ban cars? Majority rule?

Non-smokers cheer when they see the percentage of smokers keep declining, but there's something which is called a pendulum, and it would never occur to them the pendulum may start swinging back the other way some day!

Marijuana usage is a good example of that!

[kimba01]

Seems the percentage of adult smokers in casinos is much higher than 18%. Must be all those social 'sinners'.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by kimba01

Seems the percentage of adult smokers in casinos is much higher than 18%. Must be all those social 'sinners'.

I think it is because there is a large subset of people who fall into both the "gambling" circle and the "smoking" circle.

Gamblers smoke. Smokers gamble.

But smoking has become so unpopular that not even my local drug store sells cigarettes. And seriously, GOOD. Let tobacco shops be the sole outlet for cigarettes. Once we legalize all the other drugs, they can sell those, too. Vice central.

But quit telling me that people have a right to smoke. Just because prohibition won't work does not automatically mean that an addiction is a right. People don't have the right to smoke in airplanes. They don't have the right to smoke in restaurants. And their "rights" are dwindling with every passing year.

Every time a major ban has come into effect, people have shrieked "But it will ruin business for airlines/stadiums/restaurants/the Winston Cup/television networks/magazines." Every time. I have heard this exact same argument over and over my entire life.

And guess what -- it hasn't been true for any of these industries. NASCAR is still the most popular sport in America without Winston's sponsorship. Plenty of other companies buy TV ads now that Marlboro has been shut out. Smokers still buy airline tickets. They still go to restaurants and baseball games. They still go see the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. I still smell cannabis at concerts. But I don't smell tobacco anymore.

The writing is on the wall for smoking in America. And that writing is "No Smoking."

Prohibition doesn't work. They'll still allow tobacco sales at tobacco shops. But the list of places where smokers are free to light up is going to become very, very small. That's my prediction. And I'll take bets about how right I am in 10 years.

[tijlover]

New York raked in $1.6 billion in tobacco tax revenue last year, Texas raked in $1.48 billion, and countrywide, add it all up! And that doesn't include Federal taxes on tobacco!

Nonsmokers should be jumping up and down with joy to see a smoker, as if they all quit, that revenue will be collected, eventually, from the nonsmokers in some form or another, as the governments have become as addicted to that revenue, as smokers to nicotine, and can't live without it!

Governmental addiction to tobacco tax revenue goes well past Napoleon, in France, and with 100 million francs a year in tobacco tax revenue coming in, he used that to wage his Napoleonic wars. And he was encouraging more people to smoke, more smokers, more tobacco tax revenue, more money for weapons!

And you can't raise the tobacco taxes too high! England made that mistake, and in came the black market, forcing England to lower their tobacco taxes!

[kimba01]

I really don't care what they do to tobacco, but I can't stand the cry for the government to step in and do it. Shouldn't they have much bigger fish to fry? Let the private businesses decide. The cry babies that whine to the government just grind my gears.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Wyndsong71

Harrah's tried it in the 90's and it bombed. If the casinos thought they could still make money and go non-smoking they would. But they know that they can't, so they won't.

The attitude and stigma attached to smoking is much different today than it was in the 90's. It's much more frowned upon now, and the adverse health affects to not only the smoker, but those around them, are much more common knowledge.

Going smoke free would be awesome, IMO. Sure, they might lose revenue at first, but the smokers would eventually come back. The same uproar always happens when a state goes smoke free. Bar owners cry that they will have to go out of business because the smokers won't come. They protest and stay home at first, but always come back.

[BBMW]

If you're talking about CVS, yes, they stopped selling cigarettes largely as a PR/business decision. They didn't feel it fit their business plan, and the image they want to project. They're fully free to do that, and probably should be praised for doing so. But there are a vast number of retail businesses that get a decent percentage of their revenue from tobacco sales, and they'll fight tooth and nail to prevent losing that.

As far as the casinos go. Even if they don't lose patrons, they may lose revenue (as patrons break from gambling to go have a smoke.) The loss of revenue has been documented (as others have posted.) Keeping in mind how large a percentage of NV state revenue is derived from gaming taxes, I have a hard time thinking that the state would ban smoking in casinos.

What the state could do, without stepping on too many toes (other than the smokers), is, as other states have done, slap really big taxes on cigarettes. Does NV even have a separate tax on them now? What does a "normal" pack go for out there.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

I think it is because there is a large subset of people who fall into both the "gambling" circle and the "smoking" circle.

Gamblers smoke. Smokers gamble.

But smoking has become so unpopular that not even my local drug store sells cigarettes. And seriously, GOOD. Let tobacco shops be the sole outlet for cigarettes. Once we legalize all the other drugs, they can sell those, too. Vice central.

But quit telling me that people have a right to smoke. Just because prohibition won't work does not automatically mean that an addiction is a right. People don't have the right to smoke in airplanes. They don't have the right to smoke in restaurants. And their "rights" are dwindling with every passing year.

Every time a major ban has come into effect, people have shrieked "But it will ruin business for airlines/stadiums/restaurants/the Winston Cup/television networks/magazines." Every time. I have heard this exact same argument over and over my entire life.

And guess what -- it hasn't been true for any of these industries. NASCAR is still the most popular sport in America without Winston's sponsorship. Plenty of other companies buy TV ads now that Marlboro has been shut out. Smokers still buy airline tickets. They still go to restaurants and baseball games. They still go see the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. I still smell cannabis at concerts. But I don't smell tobacco anymore.

The writing is on the wall for smoking in America. And that writing is "No Smoking."

Prohibition doesn't work. They'll still allow tobacco sales at tobacco shops. But the list of places where smokers are free to light up is going to become very, very small. That's my prediction. And I'll take bets about how right I am in 10 years.