Bill gives Vegas convention authority win on smoking

By Cy Ryan

Sunday, May 31, 2009 | 5:37 p.m.

CARSON CITY – On the next to last day of the Legislature, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has come away with a victory in the battle over smoking.

A Senate-Assembly Conference Committee has agreed to amend a bill to permit smoking in conventions that are closed to the public or are being produced by a business related to tobacco and involves the display of tobacco products.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said this was a narrow exception to the smoking ban in restaurants, grocery stores or in bars that serve food. A bill to permit smoking in bars that serve food died in the Assembly Judiciary Committee earlier this session without a vote. Anderson was chairman of that committee.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority testified that it lost two conventions because of the smoking ban approved by voters in 2006. And it asked for a change in the law.

The smoking amendment was included in Assembly Bill 309, which expands the definition of the crime of stalking. The bill says stalking now occurs when the frightened person also is fearful for the immediate safety of a family member.