Atlantic City’s in new Jersey, USA casino smoking ban has seriously affected revenues, much like the smoking ban in the UK affected bingo hall revenues. The winner from all of this? Online casino sites and online bingo sites who provide a service where people can play their favorite games and have a smoke of they want to.
And now the New Jersey City Council is voting on whether to lift the smoking ban for a year to give the casinos more breathing space given the current economic environment.
But what is the attraction of smoking for gamblers? Of course, the greater percentage of casino players don´t smoke, so they´ll be breathing a huge (clean) sign of relief over the bans. But why the association in the first place?
Well we reckon that this is all down to the movies. Pick a famous film that features some casino or poker action it it somewhere, and 9 times out of 10 they´ll be a cigar chomping villain in the background (if it´s a recent film- as only the baddies smoke these days). Go further back, and the good guys will be having a dramatic smoke as well. There´s something about smoke curling over the top of a poker hand and into the bright overhead lights that does it for the film directors- it just looks good on camara.
Think about Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (this even has smoking in the title).
It all started with James Dean influencing millions of movie goers in 1956 in the film “Giant.” From then on, smoking was pegged as cool, sophisticated, rebellious.
Our view? We love the smoking ban. The first night in the pub after the ban was a revelation. No more ashtray clothes in the morning and if you had overdone it, you felt considerably better than you normally would.
But let´s give the smokers a break- why can´t they just have a special smoking room or bar in these places with all the best super fandango extraction fans going, instead of having to huddle outside in the cold? What happened to freedom of choice? Come on Flash Gordon. Sort it out man.
