Foes of smoking ban gather at rural Illinois bar to plan protest

St. Louis Post Dispatch ^ | 2/19/08 | Shane Graber

[demsux]

SANDOVAL, Ill. — Sometimes civil action begins in a rural bar called Fat's, where an ashtray sat on every table and the smoke hovered wall to wall.

About 200 people including bar owners, VFW members and patrons filled Fat's on Monday night for a tavern-hall meeting to discuss overturning or amending Illinois' statewide smoking ban established this year.

-snip-

Bar owners here reported Monday that revenue is down between 30 and 50 percent. The casino industry claims the ban already has caused at least a 17 percent drop in Illinois gaming business after just six weeks.

[demsux]

Looks like the smoking ban sure has the non-smokers coming out in droves to frequent the bars, restaurants and casinos.

/s

[demsux]

Ping

[Just another Joe]

Looks like the smoking ban sure has the non-smokers coming out in droves to frequent the bars, restaurants and casinos.

It's obvious that they MUST be gathering the paperwork to allow them to open their own bars, restaurants, and casinos.
THAT'S why they aren't picking up the slack.

[Tamar1973]

I used to live near Sandoval. LOL!

[o_zarkman44]

“Looks like the smoking ban sure has the non-smokers coming out in droves to frequent the bars, restaurants and casinos.”

Chances are that the non smokers are less likely to frequent bars and casinos even when smoking was allowed.
So they don’t care either way. If a place is too smokey, the option is to leave, not close the place down for everyone.
Don’t government have real crimes they need to solve before creating a new class of criminal conduct?

[CSM]

But, but, the ban is great because now my clothes won’t stink! The scent of fried bar food is so much better when I get home!

[marron]

Most people would gladly trade their freedom for the right to tell their neighbor what to do.

Do you think people want to be free? Maybe you do and I do, but precious few others do.

[Gabz]

Nanny State Ping!!!!!!!!!

[TAdams8591]

Great plans for a good old fashioned protest. I love it!

[libertarian27]

Thanks for the Ping

I wish them all the success in their fight.
They are fighting for their lively hood.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[boop]

"Chances are that the non smokers are less likely to frequent bars and casinos even when smoking was allowed."

Totally true. A good proportion of the people who voted for these bans are old fogeys who don't go anywhere anyway. They just plum "don't like" smoking.