Smoking and casinos go together in the United States

We have always suspected that there is a link between those who wish to gamble and those who wish to smoke but in the casino news this week experts from the gambling field think they have definitive proof of a link. The news concerns two adjacent states in the USA namely Illinois and Indiana where they both have Riverboat casinos; but from Jan 1st 2008 Illinois introduced a smoking ban whereas Indiana did not. Indiana had tried a smoking ban before on just one floor in just one casino and after two weeks reversed the ban so they were not about to follow the Illinois example. The result apparently shows that income on the Illinois riverboats dropped by over 30% from 2007 to 2009 which could be due to the recession were it not for the fact that Indiana riverboats nearest to the state line only dropped by less than 0.5% suggesting very strongly that the Illinois casino players were crossing over to Indiana to gamble in casinos where they could smoke. A report was written for an Illinois House Committee who very recently passed legislation to allow smoking in separate enclosed areas but whether that will bring the punters back remains to be seen; Indiana hopes not as that would affect the tax take from their casinos.. In Ireland of course we do not have the problem as if you want to smoke you simple stay at home and place your bets at an online casino but bear in mind that online casinos are still illegal in the USA so for them it is a big issue and making the casino news headlines..