Smoking Ban-Pool Room 1st Business Busted

[MrLucky]

Sorry but......

It's a private business. They paid for the building and they are targeting a market. You don't want to be around smokers......DON'T PATRONIZE SMOKING ESTABLISHMENTS!!!!

Why do we need big brother in every aspect of our lives. The risks of smoking is well documented. If you smoke or are around a smokey environment, chances are it's going to effect your health. Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know this? Free enterprise, if business falls off because no one wants to be in a smokey room, let the owner decide to change policy.
The law here in DE essentially puts the onus on the bartender to enforce the law. Bartenders aren't law enforcememnt officers and they aren't going to call a cop for someone smoking.
Next thing you know they'll start banning foods too..... oh wait that's already happening too. Pretty soon it will be Soylent Green for everyone....

A Fervent Non Tobacco User. (don't smoke, dip snuff, nor chew)

McCue Banger McCue

your analogy / beef does not hold water! based on this reasoning if valid then we should eliminate or just ignore speed limits, red lights, no swimming bans due to pollution or other dangers that are government regulated !

 

[Rasta]

See, that's kinda the beauty of the state-wide (or city-wide or whatever-wide) ordinance. All the venues are treated equally.

Many folks have said "if you want to go smoke-free, nobody's stopping you" as far as an individual venue owner's options/choices go. Trick is, if there's another option for the smokers, many of'em will take it. If there are two pool rooms and one goes smoke-free, many of the smoking customers will take their business to the other room. The smoke-free room will definitely suffer. It would be business suicide to make that choice.

When both rooms are smoke-free, due to local/state ordinance - and the smokers can still step outside for their fix - then the playing field is kept even, and those folks will still go to the venue they prefer. Nothing changes, except more non-smokers are inclined to come out to these venues.

Colorado's statewide smoking ban went into effect about nine months ago, and I still see the same smoker crowds in the same places. They may not be overjoyed at the prospect of having to step outside to smoke - there's grumbling here and there - but they're THERE, at the venues. I have yet to hear of a single pool room shutting down due to the smoking ban. And I'd bet that some of'em are doing better now because of it, with more non-smoking customers coming in more often.

The big trick with smoking/non-smoking is, non-smokers have to deal with various things when hanging around smokers. Second hand smoke. Hazy atmosphere. Clothes smelling like ashtrays. The reverse is completely different - non-smokers don't impact smokers in any way, as far as proximity goes.

While I would welcome a state wide bad on indoor public smoking, the room I mentioned competes head to head with a nearby room that allows smoking. I think many room owners might be underestimating the amount of business they are losing by allowing smoking inside their rooms and over estimating the amount of business they would lose by prohibiting smoking.

Good Rolls,
Rasta

 

[ScottW]

While I would welcome a state wide bad on indoor public smoking, the room I mentioned competes head to head with a nearby room that allows smoking. I think many room owners might be underestimating the amount of business they are losing by allowing smoking inside their rooms and over estimating the amount of business they would lose by prohibiting smoking.

Yep - and that means it's an uneven playing field. To the room owner in the smoking-ban area, it's the same as if he'd voluntarily went smoke-free with other rooms in the area still allowing smoking, like I'd brought up in my previous post.

Small local bans will only hurt the businesses in those small local areas. The real factor is the inconvenience-to-drive-elsewhere factor - people will only travel so far to get their smoke on indoors. At a certain point, they'll say "screw it" and go to the old place and deal with the whole step-outside thing.

 

[Rasta]

Yep - and that means it's an uneven playing field. To the room owner in the smoking-ban area, it's the same as if he'd voluntarily went smoke-free with other rooms in the area still allowing smoking, like I'd brought up in my previous post.

Small local bans will only hurt the businesses in those small local areas. The real factor is the inconvenience-to-drive-elsewhere factor - people will only travel so far to get their smoke on indoors. At a certain point, they'll say "screw it" and go to the old place and deal with the whole step-outside thing.

I'm missing something from your posts, I guess.

The room I mentioned did not ban smoking because of legislation, local or otherwise. The owner banned smoking in his room because being a non-smoking room gave him an advantage in the marketplace. Smokers still come to play in his room, even though they could drive not very far down the road and play in a room that allows smoking. Additionally, he gets business that he would not get if the place reeked like an ashtray.

Good Rolls,
Rasta

 

[ScottW]

The room I mentioned did not ban smoking because of legislation, local or otherwise. The owner banned smoking in his room because being a non-smoking room gave him an advantage in the marketplace. Smokers still come to play in his room, even though they could drive not very far down the road and play in a room that allows smoking. Additionally, he gets business that he would not get if the place reeked like an ashtray.

Good for him, then! That probably speaks more to the room owner's business/personal practices that smokers will still come to his venue instead of driving a ways farther so they could smoke inside. And good for him that he had the stones to take the risk of going non-smoking by choice. I'm glad it's working out for him.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Make the room a private club with a 1$ annual membership fee.

Should short circuit the ban.

 

[ScottW]

Make the room a private club with a 1$ annual membership fee.

Should short circuit the ban.

Not all bans are created equal There might well be provisions in the ban in question that put the kibosh on such a move.

 

[coop19772002]

Hey Mike! I hope that the smoking ban is uplifted. We are having a tourney there- and we smoke. I think it should be left up to the room owner whether or not to permit smoking in his own room. You know Sporty's is about a mile away and they allow smoking. Go figure- I know the line for the city and county is right there close. Anyways, the pool room may lose a little business- don't think so just b/c it has been there for so long and it is just a pool room where people like to go and shoot/practice and not have to be in the bar atmosphere. We'll see- what about The Caddyshack?? Can u smoke in there??

Hope you are doing well- and we'll see you in a few weeks! Take care.

Marge

 

[Jimmy M.]

Make the room a private club with a 1$ annual membership fee.

Should short circuit the ban.

Not any more (at least in the case of the Arizona state-wide ban).

 

[Russ Chewning]

Hey Mike! I hope that the smoking ban is uplifted. We are having a tourney there- and we smoke. I think it should be left up to the room owner whether or not to permit smoking in his own room. You

Yup, it's all about me me me me me me me........

I'm sure the non smokers will really appreciate having the one nice place they now have to play and be free of reeking clothes taken away if the smoking ban is lifted. Oh wait... There IS no smoking ban. People can still smoke. Just outside. Is it REALLY that much of an inconvenience to go outside so people who do not smoke can enjoy the same business?

Is it really?

I'm not surprised, though. There have been a lot of studies done on the effects smoking has on a person's personality.

Smokers are less likely to bus their own trays at a place like McDonald's, are less likely to pick up a piece of trash they dropped, are less likely to hold open a door for someone else, etc.... I think it has something to do with the fact they are addicted to something the majority of other people dislike intensely. They know other people dislike smoking, the smell, etc,, so they become emotionally numb to the dislike of their habit. This causes them to think less about other people's feelings in general, nd leads to antisocial behavior.

Oh, if only we could ban ALL indoor smoking in America, then what a wonderful thing that would be. Everyone would be on equal footing business-wise, and the people not addicted to a harmful product would no longer have to deal with all the crap associated with smokers.

Sorry for the rant. I really do hate going out to shoot pool and coming abck smelling like smoke. I am a tournament player, and I might play 4 or 5 tournaments a week, and all the places I play allow smoking. If I want to play tournaments, I have no choice but to smell like smoke. I really resent being forced to smell like that simply because smokers are too f***ing lazy to walk outside to kill themselves.

Russ

 

[DeadPoked]

I smoked off and on in high school but I started heavily smoking when I was in the military. I finally quit 1 1/2 years ago and will never start again.

I now find it amazing that people will pay a lot money for something that gives them nothing except satisy the need for another cigarette. Well that isn't entirely true... It causes you to smell bad, make other people smell bad, and hey 1 in 2 lifetime smokers will die from it... including my Father.

I consider the lottery to be a poor people tax and smoking cigarettes to be an ignorant people tax.