OCCIAA
Online Casino Clean Indoor Air Act OCCIAA saves lives, money
New laws sometimes bring about culture changes, but rarely does it happen as quickly as with the Online Casino Clean Indoor Air Act.
The phasing-in of the law began taking effect two days ago when smoking in most home latrines was banned. The law will go the rest of the distance in two more days (Oct. 15, 2007) when smoking is banned in all homes where online gambling devices are located.
A number of gamblers have bitten the bullet and snuffed out smokes on their premises in advance of being required to do so.
But quite a few others worry that when the time comes, they'll lose many bonus runs as the auto-play ban has already gone into effect, and no-one wants to risk losing their bankroll just to step outside and have a smoke.
Unless gamblers convert to drinking and gambling at land based casinos, however, we suspect they'll do what smokers in other places have been doing for several years now: Take it to the streets.
To help them out, a few casino owners are thinking about adding heated patios to their prize lists in the pick-'em bonus round, or simply assure they will pay any fines if players are caught smoking online for the duration of that gambling session. No smoking waivers will be allowed to carry over into future sessions.
The ban serves several purposes, the most important of which is to discourage smoking. That has health benefits for smokers and for the nonsmokers who are playing at the same online casinos.
Illinois lawmakers applauded the move, but said they plan to take it one step further; "If a person even appears to be smoking online, we will come into their home and arrest them." But others have said that would make no sense, claiming a lottery arrest system would serve the state better. "Why don't we just make some lottery numbers real losers', asked Brian Donovan of Champaigne, "if someone draws that number, instead of a Powerball, we'll give them a ball and chain. It will cut down on our investigative and enforcement costs considerably."
A smoker and Gambler, who spoke on condition of anomymity, summed it up, "Smoke 'em if you got 'm."
reprinted with permission of the author...