The parliament of Monaco last month voted to ban smoking in all public places, including casinos. The edict will go into effect in six months. An earlier version of the bill exempted casinos, but that was removed at the last minute. It is likely, therefore, that Monaco will experience a drop of at least 15 percent in gross gaming revenues, if the experience of the neighboring French casinos is any indication.

Detroit (AP) - If smoking is banned in Detroit bars, restaurants and workplaces, Betty Gilbert says it will hurt the city's casinos. Gilbert, who was smoking a cigarette Friday with members of her bowling team on a sidewalk near Greektown Casino downtown, should know. The 69-year-old from Cape May County, N.J. - who said she usually gambles weekly in Atlantic City - plans to cut back when that city's smoking law goes into effect.

A House-Senate conference committee was expected to meet this week to work out a compromise on a statewide smoking ban, but the meeting has been postponed again. The debate has already stretched for an entire year. Tuesday’s meeting was originally scheduled for April 1. It was postponed when some members of the committee said they needed more time to draft amendments to the legislation.

Operators Paddy Power and InterCasino have become the first gambling companies to have campaigns banned by the advertising watchdog since laws were relaxed last September. The Advertising Standards Authority has banned four TV ads by InterCasino and a national press ad by Paddy Power for breaching its new code on advertising by gambling companies. The code, introduced on September 1 following the relaxation of ad rules under the Gambling Act 2005...

Black Hawk, Colorado -- The haze has yet to clear on whether a 3-month-old smoking ban is responsible for declining fortunes at the casinos in Colorado's three gaming towns. Since the state extended an indoor smoking ban to its 40 casinos on Jan. 1, the gambling industry has reported a drop in business here and in the other gaming towns of Central City and Cripple Creek. But casino-goers and operators alike point to a variety of additional reasons for the downturn.

The latest speculation emerging from the Russian market is that there may be a stay of execution in the gaming industry there. The gambling market is scheduled to close in July 2009, except for four gaming zones‚ in different parts of the country. In 2006, Russia worked out a law on creation of four gambling zones. Since the 1st of June 2009 any gambling activity beyond these zones will be prohibited. However, the constant lobbying within the Russian parliament for an extension to the breathing space given to the industry to close down may be bearing some fruit.

Atlantic City, New Jersey (AP) -- For Bob Phelan, having a cigarette while gambling in an Atlantic City casino approaches a religious ritual. "I come here to gamble, have a drink and a smoke," he said. "It's the holy trinity." But people like casino dealer Adrien Huggins find working amid swirling cigarette smoke can be hellish. "It's hard to breathe," said the 21-year dealer at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. "It burns your eyes, your nostrils. I get sick a lot."

The nine-member Atlantic City Council is expected to take up a controversial measure later today that will prohibit smoking in all the casino floors here for the first time in the seaside resort’s 30-year history of gambling. Four council members are co-sponsors of the measure, and only one more member is needed for passage. The call for a full smoking ban arrives on the eve of the first anniversary of the partial smoking ban that took effect April 15, 2007.

People in Iowa bars would be prohibited from smoking but gamblers on casino floors could keep puffing under a proposed statewide tobacco ban compromise that a legislative panel reached Monday. The decision could end weeks of disagreement among lawmakers about how far a smoking ban should go. House members could vote as early as today on the compromise, which prohibits smoking in the majority of public places in Iowa.

According to a piece in this week's issue of the Christian Science Monitor, the United States should toughen its stance on online gambling by banning Internet betting on horseracing. Founded in 1908, the mainstream daily newspaper is published by The First Church of Christ, Scientist of Boston with a public-service mission but features both secular national and international reports.

The Ministry of Popular Power for Tourism published a resolution in which it tells to the National Commission of Casinos, Bingo Halls and Slots to abstain from the issuance or renewal of licenses for the installation and operation of such gambling venues for three years. They also banned the installation and operation of casinos...

Atlantic City - Year two, round two. City Council will again attempt to outlaw smoking in city gaming halls at next week's meeting as last year's partial ban approaches its first anniversary. "It was somewhat self-executing in that the one-year anniversary is almost here and little has been done to comply with the partial ban," Councilman Bruce Ward said Friday. Ward co-sponsored a proposed full ban in February 2007 before officials amended the ordinance in the face of intense opposition from top officials from the resort's 11 casinos.