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Reader Poll Replies: * I
would like no smoking in casinos, it sure has cleaned up the restaurants
here in California. Andy. CA
* I go along with the
petition Responsibly Protect Nevadans from Second Hand Smoke. We have a
no smoking ban in New York State restaurants and public places. It has
hurt the VFW bingo hall a little but it is so nice not to have to
breathe in the smoke of others that want to kill themselves. My husband
had a heart attack and triple bypass and he has given up smoking. Nancy
Sexton
* I am definitely against
all smoking anywhere -- but especially in public areas. So many people
have respiratory problems and being exposed to second hand smoke is
annoying and potentially dangerous. Joanne Kammer
* I don't smoke so I don't need
everybody's second hand smoke. G J Smith
* The moment it will pass, will be
the last time I will go to Vegas. I am not smoking, but I hate.
when somebody try to tell me what I can and can not do! I am an
adult and it's for me to decide. Polina Yerkhov Reseda,
CA
* I am a non smoker, and as most
of the casinos have designated smoking areas I don't see why this bill
needs to be passed. I go to Las Vegas several times a year and have
never found the casinos to be smoky as they seem well ventilated. People
who do not smoke do not have to go into the smoking areas if they don't
want to. I live in Canada and I feel that there are a lot worse things
in the air that we breathe than cigarette smoke. Look at the fumes that
people breathe in everyday at their jobs (firemen, mechanics, roofers,
many factory workers) and if they get cancer doing these jobs it takes
years for any kind of compensation from WCB if they can get any at all. Faith
Sharp
* Just what we need, another
group of self righteous do-gooders trying to tell everyone else what to
do. Smoking bans in restaurants do not bother me at all. Very seldom do
I smoke when I eat. But when it comes to Bars and casinos! If they
want to have no smoking casinos, then build some new ones that are non
smoking. I myself, would never go into a no smoking casino or bar.
Chuck Merica
* NO !!! Las Vegas is a
place for fun with no cares and no worries etc. Remember what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas. This is a place that smokers shouldn't have to be
banned to some small room or out in the cold and rain. This is Vegas.
It is suppose to fun for all. Harper2244
* I am in favor of no
smoking in casinos. If you don't smoke it is very hard to sit at a slot
machine and have someone blowing smoke on you. They let their cigarettes
burn or worse yet they hold them in one hand and sit sideways where the
smoke comes right at you. Not only do your clothes stink but your hair
and everything else on your body stinks! Most smokers are very
rude about it. At least the casinos could do a nonsmoking area with the
same machines and games that the rest of the casino has. I think that
casinos are discriminating against non smokers and that is the biggest
problem non smokers have. I could care less if someone smokes like a
freight train and kills themselves in the process but don't take me with
them. Kathy Allman
* As a smoker, it has become
more and more difficult over the last few years. Although I love Las
Vegas and have been vacationing there for the last several years, if
smoking were banned, I may stop going. The freedom to smoke almost
anywhere is not the only reason I love Vegas, but it is one of them. If
cigarettes were banned completely in this country, the economy would be
dealt a devastating blow. One from which it might never recover. How
about passing a law that would make Nevada a state for "smokers only"?
That would never even be considered under our constitution, so how is
"no smoking" such an easy law to pass? Thank you for asking for my
opinion. Carl W. Masshardt
* My response to the
question of smoking in Public is, ( No! ) I would like to be more
sympathetic to the smokers but I rarely see any smokers trying to take
necessary precautions to protect non smokers like myself. I suffer from
Allergies and Asthma and smoke takes a terrible toll on my health. If
the law could be written to designate areas I could agree with that.
Sincerely, Ken Stachnik
* NO BAN ON SMOKING! Are you
kidding me it's Sin City, leave the kiddies and the save
the world bumper stickers at the house where they belong. Better yet, go
somewhere else. Is there nothing sacred? You people make me want to
throw up. Vegas is where you go to gamble, party, drink, smoke, and do
whatever else it is that you want to do, but can't in every town USA.
Oh, I don't smoke. Jeff Baker
* I support a smoking ban inside
buildings. Second-hand smoke is nearly as dangerous as first-hand, and
those who do not smoke have the right to clean lungs. Enjoyment of
inside space will be enhanced by the absence of smoke. And everyone will
be healthier. Snuff 'em and stuff 'em. Bob Baird Edmonds
WA
* Smoking MUST be allowed in
Vegas - this is the one place to cut loose! Keep it that way, it's
what makes the city unique! CV
* Emphatically NO. If smoking is
banned in the casinos, I won't go back to Vegas. Currently visit 2-3
times yearly. Zoe Davis
* If you ban smoking, I will
ban my self from the casinos. I will not travel to Vegas. You will not
get my business or my tip. Ok listen up! The Beau Rivage in Biloxi
closed their poker room to install a no smoking slot area. They had the
best poker room in the south. Now they have an empty no smoking slot
area. Rumor had it that the revenues dropped, and fact is they laid off
a lot of there poker dealers. So there is the case for the
Casino's. Here is the case for the workers! I work in the chemical
industry by CHOICE. I work for a environmentally responsible co. and get
paid well. They go to great lengths to protect me from the chemicals and
process that I work around every day, and I do the same for my self and
co workers. Even though, I am still exposed to cancer causing agents
every day I am at work, I knew this when I hired on. My industry makes
base chemicals for the plastics that make up a large portion of your
world I provide a service just as you do. The day I don't want to be
exposed to toxics I will change careers. I will not ask legislature to
ban the "bad" products and only make the good, if this would happen
industry, workers & customers would loose. Why not look for an
alternative to your problem? Player
* No I do not support a ban
of smoking in public places in Vegas. It is the one place gamblers from
all over the world can go to without any moral/health related rules and
I myself probably would just stick to our lousy non-smoking no-alcohol
casinos in Canada if they did change the rules. I don't frequent the
casinos in BC often because they are so
boring with the lack of party atmosphere. It's always been "Everything
Goes" in Vegas and that is what keeps most of us coming back once or
twice a year!!!! I think Vegas would take a terrible downturn again and
not be able to pull itself out of it if it initiated this ban.
Ardie Lush
* No No No If this law
passes I would not come back to Vegas anymore. (Eight times a year about
30 nights a year.) I could just as easily go to Atlantic City being from
New York. Gary Miller
* Here we go again with
government legislating morality, and stipulating how a private business
built by those with true initiative should be run. Leave it to the
casino owners if they want to perhaps have 'no smoking' areas. The
fathers of our country wished to form a nation with a non intrusive
government...unlike the one we have now. May they rest in peace. Let the
ones who know best be the ones to run their businesses as they see fit.
Paul Hayward CA
* The governments, federal,
state, and local make more money on the sale of tobacco than the
growers, manufacturers, and distributors of it. AS long as it is a
government sanctioned legal product the smoker has a certain right to
use it. If they want to have no smoking casino rooms let them. But do
not try to stop all smoking in casinos. What will these people think up
next? No alcoholic beverages? Perhaps even no gambling in casinos.
I am a non smoker and a regular visitor to Las Vegas. I have lived for
77 years around smokers and if it has harmed me I have at least beaten
the actuarial odds on my expected lifespan. Harold B Hastings
Parsonsburg, MD
* I say no to the "RPNfSHSA". I
believe that will have a negative impact on the Nevada gaming industry.
As an ex-smoker and resident of California I know, before I even enter,
what the environment in the typical casino setting will be. When in the
history of Las Vegas has a casino, bar, lounge, etc. ever been
considered a health spa? In my state they have gone as far as to even
prohibit smoking on the beach! (I'm still not sure how they will enforce
that one.) If the employees and patrons want better air quality in these
locations, the owner/operators should be required to accept and provide
better air exchange policies. James Partlow El Segundo CA
* I do not favor a
smoking ban in casinos, if passed I would travel somewhere else where I
could. I do not want to fall off a tall building, very dangerous, so I
am not a steel worker. If I want to avoid second hand smoke I do not
work in an area exposed to it. This is my option the state should take
it away. Jerry Buffalo, NY
* Las Vegas has always been
a "free spirited" place.... a Mecca to escape real world frustrations
and anxieties. Being a smoker, I enjoy being able to sit at the tables
or a slot machine and have a smoke while I play. Let other places ban
smoking; perhaps create a few places where smoking is prohibited, but
let there be a choice - for smokers and non-smokers, alike. Celeste
Hoehne Lubbock, Texas
* I'm a firm believer that
smoking should be banned everywhere-but especially in all public places.
Too many people have respiratory problems created by smoking.
Joanne Kammer
Lansdowne, PA
* No I smoke and I enjoy smoking
while I gamble. If this is passed I probably won't be coming back. I
will go else where. I don't tell the non-smoker's to come and sit by me.
They chose to do this rather than go to the non-smoking areas of the
casino's. Fran Stewart Altoona, Ia
* I certainly would like to
see the end to smoking in the Vegas casinos because it is "The" health
issue of our times - second hand smoke. I live in Montreal (Canada) and
they have banned smoking in the casino here. It was assumed that the
clientele would diminish but to the contrary, it has increased. It is
now a pleasure to sit down at a table, or a machine and not have someone
blowing smoke into your face - the worst offenders being the cigar
smokers. Yes - if I had a vote, I definitely would opt for smoke
free casinos. Sandra Crotty Montreal, Quebec Canada
* Have a non smoking area
for the ones who don't smoke. That ought to solve that problem. We smoke
when we gamble. Mark & Patricia Sparaco Dayton, Ohio
* I initiated a
program which created low cost housing for cancer patients and family
members being treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan.
Many were treated for lung cancer, some the result of second hand smoke.
The answer from the families - a resounding yes! Ban smoking in public
places. William Hanousek Astoria NY
* I can only say........
IT'S ABOUT TIME and I'm ALL FOR IT!!! Andy Dulina
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
* No smoking would be great
but will never happen. Downtown is worst but I avoid the machines due to
the smokers lighting up and blowing in your face, worst yet is the cigar
smoke, sickening. Nan Patterson Greenwood
* No, I do not like the idea. Why?
The casino's make a lot of money off smoker's simply because a person
can sit there , relax and enjoy themselves. the non smoker's have places
to play-so should the smoker. Jean Dowd Siler City, N.C.
* As a resident of the USA,
I have become accustomed to non-smoking areas ever where I go. However,
no such ban exists in other countries. So, would this ban hurt the Vegas
economy as it comes from "non-resident" visitors? They seem to be the
heaviest smokers anyway. Ellen Puoghkeepsie
* It's been this way in BC,
Canada for a couple of years now. Kind of hard to get used to but not so
bad. I just don't like, as an adult, being told what I can and cannot
do. As well, many of our bars, clubs & coffee shops have lost so many
customers due to the no smoking rule, that they've, unfortunately, gone
out of business. I say, let people do what they want, within reason, as
long as they're responsible, not hurting others, and not rude! We can
smoke responsibly in designated areas. Don't cut it out completely, or
you might be just cutting out 1/2 your business! Gwen Schaffer
British Columbia Canada
* I would like to see bigger
none smoking areas in the casino with an equal number of games to play,
the non smoking areas are usually small & don't have the same games. I
choose not to smoke but I believe we are allowing our government to take
more & more of our rights away. I also think that people who do smoke
should be more courteous when non-smokers sit next to them. Janet
Keene Louisville KY
* No. Ron
Kansas city MO
* The move to require
California restaurants some years ago to provide non-smoking dining was
met with millions of dollars in political fallout from the state's food
and beverage industry. Much to their surprise, restaurant profits soared
and the non-smoking sections were so popular that many restaurants just
eliminated their smoking sections. None-the-less, when the law
eliminating all smoking in bars was proposed, the food and beverage
industry again cried that they would be driven out of business. Again,
profits soared. If smoking were outlawed in Las Vegas, I'm sure that
many potential gamblers would visit the city's casinos after having
avoided those smoky places for so long. I really wish that smokers had a
clue as to just how offensive it is to to a non-smoker to have someone
sit next to you in a casino, light up and puff away. Bill Hall
San Diego CA
* If Las Vegas passed this
law, I believe many more states would do the same. People will adapt.
Remember when you could smoke on airplanes, in your hospital bed, etc.
Barbara Schroeder Skokie, IL
* I don't smoke but I think
everyone should be free to choose whether to smoke or not we are not
children we do not need a nanny state telling us what to do. To non
smokers I say if you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.
Smokers have rights too. Kimrand Pontefract UK
* The casinos have non smoking
section just for those that don't smoke. Smokers have rights too. If
they pass a non smoking bill in Vegas I will never return. Vegas is my
one and only vacation spot. I'll just have to find one some where else.
A place that allows grown ups to be grown ups. Brenda Harper
Dolton IL
* I'm all for a smoke free casino
atmosphere! It is so disgusting to be dressed up and gambling next to
someone that is smoking and stinking up the same area I'm in. Do you
know what it's like to have to breathe that in? To have your clothes
smell bad? Oregon, Massachusetts and New York have no smoking in bars
and restaurants and business is thriving - non smokers spend lots of
money too! Sherry
* I don't smoke by choice. Others
smoke by choice. Why should their choice to smoke ruin my health? Let
the casinos have special smoking areas and keep the larger parts of the
casino floor smoke free. If smokers are true gamblers, they'll come
anyway. I don't like sitting at the slots breathing in someone's smoke
or having my clothes stink when I leave! Have you ever been at a craps
table surrounded by smokers -who wants to gamble in that? Jim L
Hazleton, PA
* No, I do not favor no
smoking in Las Vegas casinos. This country is already enacting too many
restrictions on things, seems totalitarianism is next on the agenda. No,
to no smoking! Patricia Majewski Philadelphia
* Most places have non-smoking
places for those who don't smoke, why ban the smokers? Why don't
the smokers have a voice in any thing. I don't know why the smokers
don't have a say in this. If people don't want to be around smokers
don't go there. Give us a break. I think it would be really unfair to
let non smoking people have their way on this matter. Why don't
they go after the people who drink. That's just as bad as smoking in my
book. Judy
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