BOSTON — You can’t smoke at work. Light up in a restaurant? Forget it. But as long as you’re pumping quarters into a slot machine, the state Senate might just be willing to let you puff away. The Senate resumes debate today on whether to legalize casinos. When it does, it will also weigh whether to allow gamblers to light up in designated smoking areas that could be up to 75 percent of the casino. The state’s restaurant industry says that is putting profits ahead of principles. Lawmakers’ motives are “a little bit suspect,” says a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Restaurant Asso ... Jump to full article >>

The quintessential Las Vegas or Atlantic City casino experience comes with card dealers in ties, feather-festooned showgirls and the most coveted amenity: the free drink. Yet as casino gambling has migrated from America’s storied gambling towns to middle America, the complimentary cocktail hasn’t always survived the trip. The reasons are sometimes moral, sometimes economic. The new generation of casinos faces varying guidelines established by local legislators who didn’t always support their arrival. Paying for drinks has left lovers of the freebie, like Lynette Gross of Indi ... Jump to full article >>

Bingo and casino operator Rank Group is enjoying a “positive start to the year” as punters flock to its casinos. Like-for-like group sales in the last four months rose 4pc, driven by online sales and its Grosevnor Casinos division, where longer opening hours saw the number of customer visits increase by 7pc. Rank has rebranded many of its casinos as “G Casinos” to appeal to those who want a night out as well as a bet and plans to open 20 of the venues by the end of 2012. Rank said its G Casinos attract “significantly higher levels of customer visits”. The c ... Jump to full article >>

A revenue from video gambling in Montana has fallen dramatically over the last few months, and state officials say it has a lot to do with the Clean Indoor Air Act. We spoke to local bars about the changes they’ve seen since the smoking ban went into effect last October. According to the State Gambling Control Division, tax revenue from video gambling dropped almost 18% in the last three months of 2009. They estimate a $2.5 million drop when compared to those same three months in 2008. But at the Cartwheel Casino in Great Falls things aren’t all doom and gloom. Staff members tell u ... Jump to full article >>

ANTI-SMOKING groups have called on the State Government to stand up to gambling lobbyists and ban smoking in Star City casino’s seven high-roller rooms. They say the NSW Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, should not let Labor’s close ties with pubs and clubs – which have donated about $3.7 million to the party since the 2007 election – dictate public health policy. The NSW Health Minister has granted year-long exemptions to Star City every year since 2004. Campaigners are fed up with the excuse that Star City will lose high-stakes international gamblers to the other state ... Jump to full article >>

Phillip Mann, who owns a gaming parlor on Washington Avenue and West 6th Street, doesn’t smoke and said he’s against smoking. But he said he simply cannot support the all-out smoking ban for bars and game rooms that is being proposed by the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. “As much as I hate smoking — and I do — there will be a greater harm to the general public,” said Mann, who led a bar owners’ meeting at VFW Post 1064 in Huntington on Monday evening. The Cabell-Huntington Health Department is proposing a smoking ban that would extend the existin ... Jump to full article >>

Do Michigan lawmakers really want to take a position that it is OK to kill casino workers as long as there are some jobs saved in the process? Apparently so. Both the Senate and the House broke though a long stalemate yesterday to approve a bill that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants. The governor was expected to sign it. But there is a catch. The ban comes with exemptions for casinos. Apparently that was the only way to reach a compromise between Democrats, who generally want the ban but don’t want to hurt casino business, and Republicans, some of whom may have been playing poli ... Jump to full article >>

His 30 years in the restaurant business have left Nick Cantone with fines for allowing gambling and, more recently, smoking in his establishment. But he has figured out a way to allow both activities. Early next year, he plans to transform Cantone’s Southern Italian Restaurant into a home for a Sons of Italy chapter. State law permits certain gambling activities, such as small games of chance, as well as smoking, at private clubs. Yesterday, the chapter installed its officers at a lunchtime ceremony. It is the third Sons of Italy chapter in the area but the only one with a home base. Anyone, ... Jump to full article >>

Gamblers play in the smoking areas of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in November 2008 in Atlantic City. Councilman Dennis Mason announced Wednesday that City Council will not consider a full smoking ban in casinos for at least two years. ATLANTIC CITY — Casino workers hoping to see a full ban on smoking in their work place will have to wait another two years just to debate issue with the city. Councilman Dennis Mason announced Wednesday that the city will not continue discussions about outlawing smoking in local gaming halls until the end of 2011, a decision made in private after a coun ... Jump to full article >>

A Senate Republican leader said Monday he believes he has the votes to pass a workplace smoking ban with exceptions for the Detroit casinos, cigar bars and tobacco shops, but one industry group would rather see a total ban. Senate Appropriations chairman Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said the Senate intends to take up the smoking prohibition measure this week, and he will propose an amendment that allows smoking on the floor of the city’s three gaming halls and in cigar bars and smoking shops. “Yes, I think we can get the votes,” Jelinek said on Detroit talk radio, adding heR ... Jump to full article >>

When Montana’s smoking ban went into full effect Oct. 1, it hit some businesses hard and left others virtually unscathed. In general, establishments that catered specifically to the gambling crowd suffered most. “Some little bars did well, but some, absolutely no one’s coming in,” said Steve Arntzen, chief operating officer for Century Gaming. The Billings-based business accounts for 25 percent of the video gaming machines in Montana. “Where gaming is secondary, those places haven’t been impacted nearly as much.” [caption id="attachment_3698" align="alignleft" width="300" caption ... Jump to full article >>