The law bans smoking in just about all public places that serve food, except for casinos. But smokers say it goes too far and restaurant and bar owners say it’s ruining their business.

“We do have some people coming in,” says Parker Mills, bar manager at Famous Murphy’s of Reno on South Virginia Street. “But it’s not like it used to be.”

Profits from the slot machines that used to rake in money from the bar have dropped 65 percent since Nevada voted to ban smoking in restaurants and bars with kitchens.

“If people aren’t coming into gamble, you have to raise the prices,” says Mills. “And instead of having five dollar chicken wings, they’re now 11 bucks.”

A lot of non-smokers are saying that’s too bad; and some, like former smoker Carol Mayberry want the act expanded even further.

“I think it’s important for them to stay in their cars or house and away from public places.”

(Isn’t the compassion of the nicotine nannies a wonderful thing? You can just feel the hate oozing from this bitch’s pores.)

Lazzerone says he’s still seen a big economic impact on business, despite the remodeling. And Mills says the promise of an increase in non-smoking customers is a dream that simply hasn’t come true.

“They haven’t showed up in place of the smoking gamblers who disappeared.”

Source: Kolo 8. Link

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Bars/Taverns, North America, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.