Poker Poker Poker!: [vpFREE] Re: Jean Scott's Frugal Vegas BLOG

caribou_123 wrote:
> > Please don't start spreading these misleading facts. The revenue
> > fall began BEFORE the smoking rules took effect in April, after the
> > additional competition from casinso in PA and other areas increased
> > earlier in the year ... There is no accurate way to determine now
> > how much is due to each reason ...
>
> Your post would make an excellent press release by the heavily
> financed elitists and social engineers who are pushing these smoking
> bans. It's called "deliberate misinterpretation." ...
>
> Now, I've got some bad news for all of you smokers. And I throw
> myself in with you because I'm a nicotine fiend from hell. WE'VE
> LOST THE WAR!! We're like the South after Gettysburg. We're like
> the Germans after the Allies breached the Atlantic Wall. We can keep
> on fighting, but we're beat. ...
>
> Smoking ban initiatives are popping up all over the country. The
> people behind them are well financed, highly talented, and highly
> dedicated. They have some brilliant tricks up their sleeves. ...
>
> Business people are not opposed to these bans for ideological
> reasons-they are opposed because of the economic harm it does them.
> Rarely do smoking ban advocates admit that these businesses are
> damaged. ...
>
> And it's this kind of restrictive law that social engineers want to
> see on the National level. They won't quit until it happens.

The free-market, Libertarian principled side of me abhors smoking
bans. When I enter a casino, it reasons that I recognize the
realities of the presence of smokers, have little intrinsic right to
monitor their behavior, and accept the consequences if I choose to
play there.

However, there's a common sense side that finds public smoking
socially unconscionable.

Over time, I've gathered that most smokers recognize that it's rude
and boorish to expect an adjacent diner in a restaurant to simply
accept wafting smoke as an appropriate adjunct to enjoying their meal.
(Even most of my hard core smoking friends have refrained from
lighting up during a meal with them, even before the ban.) I'm hoping
that eventually a similar consciousness will find it's way into other
social situations, such as play in the casino. But I welcome a ban to
accelerate the comfort it would bring.

Now, I imagine I should be concerned about the effect of second hand
smoke on my health. But, having spent my childhood Michigan winter
weekends cooped up in a Mustang -- sitting on the "hump" between my
parents in the front, my two half-brothers in the back, with all
passengers other than myself chain-smoking during our weekly 4+ hour
drive to and from our cabin (opened side vents a modest concession to
ensure my father could see sufficiently to drive) -- I figure most of
any ultimate damage has been done (notwithstanding talk of the
consequences being reversible).

Here's what I react to. After just 4 or 6 hours sitting at the
machines during a day in the casino, I find that adjacent smoking
players might as well have relieved themselves on my pants leg rather
than inconveniencing themselves with bathroom breaks.

This isn't hyperbole. When I come home and open my suitcase, I find
it as objectionable as if one of the cats had snuck into it and
"sprayed" my clothing (lets not bother about the difference in
internal organs involved). For that matter, they sniff around the
suitcase after each trip and give me a look of, "where the f*** have
you been spending time"?

I just can't come up with any reason why the consequences of smoking
(at least in a casino) should be considered socially acceptable. I
try to think of smoke encountered at a machine as merely an
inconvenience that I elect to endure. The fact that I can't wear
contact lenses in the casino isn't a big issue. But when I big
picture things in my mind, I get p***ed.

So, Mickey, I don't deny any of the realities that you paint in your
post (which I have obviously quoted in excerpt only). But I hope
you'll understand that from my perspective, all of your objections are
of no consequence. Although I gravely regret the sentiment, I cheer
on every politically-correct, biased, propagandized act that hastens a
ban.

- Harry