There's a running gun battle going on in Las Vegas between smokers and the State of Nevada and it has had some disastrous effects on both large and small businesses.

Most young people will probably think I'm pulling their legs, but I grew up when it was common to smoke cigarettes along with your doctor, while he was examining you for the cause of your chest pains or chronic cough.

In fact, the first time I went to the hospital, for a hernia operation, there was an ashtray on the nightstand.

But things are different now, California is almost a non-smoking State, and I understand that cigarettes in New York City are around 8 bucks a pack, in an effort to curtail smoking.

Here in Las Vegas there is a new law that prohibits smoking in any place that serves food unless there is a distinctly separate enclosed area for smokers only. Not many of the small casinos and bars have been able to set this up due to costs and as a result they have lost customers.

Personally I don't see why it's necessary to make every place non-smoking. It should be up to the individual owners to decide if they want smoking or non-smoking, and it should be up to the non-smokers to decide if they want to patronize places that allow smoking.

However smokers now have their havens, in the form of upscale cigar bars and lounges, where they can purchase and puff away on cigars of every imaginable type from all over the world. Alas, Cuban cigars, at least new ones, need not apply for admittance, as our government continues to punish the mighty nation of Cuba for having the temerity to not do what Washington wants.

Cigar lovers in Las Vegas can gather and enjoy their stogies in peace, in almost any Strip casino, in posh places such as "Casa Fuente" shown above.

Source:www.smokeshopmag.com