Smoking Banned in Illinois Casino's as of Jan. 1,2008

John Kass reports on the morons who run the state of Illinois:

With all the smoke Illinois politicians are blowing with their casino plan to generate gazillions in new revenue -- including a mega casino for Mayor Richard Daley -- they're underestimating something:

Smoke.

Illinois' statewide smoking ban for all public places goes into effect Jan. 1. This won't merely kill off the small businesses, the corner diners and neighborhood bars. It'll cost the state a big chunk of gambling revenue.


Illinois gamblers won't be able to smoke while they're rolling dice or at the blackjack tables, dropping their cash to help spendthrift Illinois governments. Many will drive to Indiana casinos instead, where they'll be treated like grown-ups.

It could mean an estimated loss of 20 percent from the nearly $2 billion a year in gross casino revenues. That's quite the chunk of change. Possibly as high as $400 million a year, but likely somewhat lower.

Politicians are hot for the casino bill. Problem gamblers can't stop gambling, and this is called a sickness. But our politicians can't stop spending and spending. They're just as compulsive as the bust-outs, except that gamblers have the decency to risk their own children's futures, while the politicians gamble away our children's futures, amassing great power, installing their own children into statewide offices, to rule over us like the serfs we've become.

"There is information out there that two-thirds of casino patrons smoke and two-thirds of casino employees smoke," said state Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), a sponsor of the casino bill under consideration.

Lang and others know that the smoking ban will cut into casino revenues, meaning it will cut into tax revenues. So far though, no casino exemption has been offered.

"Someone will probably propose one, but I'm not sure who," Lang said Tuesday. "There was a basic consensus that some legislators would vote against gaming on the simple principle of the smoking."

So politicians want to protect us from taxed tobacco, but not from untaxed Outfit loan sharks.

Good luck January 1.