...vegas is smokin'!

If it smells like stale cigarette smoke you must be in Las Vegas. Nevada has bowed to the tobacco industry and smoking is allowed almost everywhere except where food is served. What that tells me is that the Lords of the Strip not only want to take you for all you’re worth financially, they also have no qualms about endangering your heart, lungs, teeth and toenails. So be it. However, another, less, dire result is an odd one, but inevitable and logical. That is, even in the newest, most garishly spectacular of these casinos, and I must confess I was blown away by some of the architecture and décor therein; there is a subtle scent of stale tobacco smoke and, in the older ones, a frankly pervasive odor. Even though the air conditioning and, I guess, smoke filters must now be the best, you can’t escape the insidiousness in the carpeting and drapes and anything that can harbor this stench (like lobby furniture and barstools).

Upon further consideration I realize that a lot of the floors, especially in the newer casinos, are not carpeted but are hard-surfaced with some very elegant, eloquent and quite beautiful inlaid marble; works of art really. It makes me wonder if this wasn’t some clever interior designers’ effort at curtailing this phenomenon-that-dare-not-speak-its-name, that really cannot be totally obscured chemically. Although I don’t think marble harbors scent I’m sure that strange, spreading, brown stain has to be constantly monitored.

Further to this topic I read recently that, to combat the recent fall-off in windfall tax profits, the State of New Jersey lifted the ban on smoking in New Jersey’s casinos. Since there is just no shame left in the world I suppose I shouldn’t be faulting Las Vegas and Atlantic City in particular but, hey, taxing sin is one thing but taxing second-hand death is really gruesome.