Anti-smoking Laws

[Casey]

As of 1st July this year, smoking is completely banned in pubs and bars. They used to allow it in machine gambling rooms and maybe one bar. I wouldn't have minded that so much even though I am a smoker, but the anti-smoking Nazis have allowed one exception ... high stakes rooms in casinos. Mustn't upset the high-rollers, must we now, eh? Oh well, not that they tell the public, but gambling is one of the few growth industries left to us and since The World's Greatest Treasurer (as he called himself) floated our dollar, I guess they're after every stray buck they can get.

 

They don't define what a high-roller is, but I gather that's when someone can say, "Hey bitches, I got money and if I wanna smoke, you can choke on it too!" Truth is, the bastard Government can rave on about health issues all they want. However if they'd had the courage of their convictions they'd have banned the sale of tobacco products altogether but if you ask me, they are even more addicted to the revenue from tobacco sales than we smokers are to the nicotine in our ciggies.

 

Jesus H Christ, when I was a schoolkid in the Sixties and Seventies, it wasn't unknown for teachers to blow smoke in your face and at the same time tell you not to smoke. Some chance of that, eh? And they never gave a damn until the lawsuits for passive smoking came out, not as far as I know anyway. I think this is just a scam cooked up between our Government, the insurance industry and the tobacco companies. Look at it this way, all of them profit out of this. The insurance industry saves on payouts, the Government gets even more revenue (from fines) and the tobacco barons laugh all the way to the bank.

 

In conclusion I'd add this. The only thing pubs and clubs had going for them after drink-driving laws and RBT (Random Breath Testing for motorists) came in was gambling machines, OK? (And for the record I'll say I agree with RBT; it saves a lot of lives). Yet the stupid greedy pricks make these machines take 17.7% of every dollar played in the long run. In short, no one can beat the house PC as that's known in the trade. Now I used to play these machines if I was bored out of my skull and had no better use for twenty bucks or so. I mean, I'd run through my twenty and if I lost it I'd leave, if I won a few dollars, same thing.

 

Well I ask you, why in three devil's names should I play a machine that chews my money up like that if I can't have a smoke while I play? What do they take me for, a mug? The only serious punters (players or bettors) they will have left will be degenerates at this rate, and most of them are smokers; I've hardly seen any that weren't. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! End of rant.

Casey

[Ouroboros]

The Passive Smoking nazis want a federal law now. Wouldn't surprise me if soon it will be outlawed to smoke in your car and home too.

 

I think I'll move to some desolate farm somewhere.