Casinos should respect patrons and ban smoking

John Tominsky, Las Vegas

Monday, March 7, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

I quit smoking 40 years ago and my wife 10 years ago when we saw what it was doing to our health.

When are the casino owners in this country going to free us casino patrons from the cigarette terrorists who want us to die of lung cancer — the same cancer they are heading toward? Smokers should take a good look in the mirror and see what they look like.

My wife and I live in a senior complex and many seniors we know will not go to a casino because of the cigarette smoke. Casino owners should wake up — most of their customers with money have gray hair. (How anyone living on fixed incomes can afford a cigarette addiction is way beyond my thinking process.) Casino owners should step up to the plate and end this health hazard to themselves, their workers and, most of all, their fed-up patrons.

The solution is simple: All casino owners in this country should contact one another and set a realistic date to have their casinos smoke-free. A year would give all owners time to implement this lifesaving notice.

In the long run, the casinos will gain hundreds of new customers. The ones they will lose will be under a sheet in the morgue — with lung cancer as the cause of death.

And, to teenagers: Cigarettes and marijuana will destroy your Hollywood image in time. So please do not smoke.