Smoking ban is bad for business, say casinos

Pennsylvania's slots casinos are complaining that the recently enacted state smoking ban is hurting their revenues (we told you so) and are asking that their exemption be increased from 25% to 50% of the casino floor.  Since about half of slots revenue goes to the state in taxes, they will likely get their exemption.

Meanwhile, John Goodman points to a New York Times article that anti-smoking "scare tactics" actually encourage smoking (I believe the scientific term is "reverse psychology"). 

Thus, when State Senator Stewart Greenleaf announces he is going to crack down on "loopholes" in the smoking ban using rhetoric like "It is estimated that over 53,000 non-smokers die each year due to exposure" (which is a completely fabricated statistic, generated by people who profit from suing tobacco companies) it makes cigarettes sound delightful to millions of teenagers.