ATLANTIC CITY - Smoke swirled around Barbara DePierro’s head as she used one hand to puff on a cigarette and the other to play a slot machine at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
DePierro, a New Yorker, settles into her cigarettes-and-slots routine whenever she comes to Atlantic City and dreads the thought that her gambling pleasures may someday be interrupted by a casino smoking ban.
“I like it the way it is now. If they banned smoking in Atlantic City, I would go to the Indian reservation casinos in Connecticut just to smoke,” DePierro vowed as her husband, James, nodded his head in agreement.
A year after Atlantic City delayed a total smoking ban at the request of the powerful gaming industry, city officials are again debating whether the casinos should go smoke-free. City Council backed away from a ban last year amid warnings that smokers would take their business elsewhere, further depressing casino earnings in the soft economy.
But council members also promised then to revisit the issue in a year. Just as it was on Oct. 8, 2008 - when it voted 5-4 to scrap the smoking ban - council remains divided. (more…)

The Oklahoma Tax Commission is missing out on more than $1 million a month in tax collections by refusing to strongly enforce state tobacco tax laws, an Oklahoma City wholesaler has alleged.

Oklahoma City wholesaler Alan Beck displays some of the tobacco products he claims are being sold illegally in the state. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman

“Legitimate distributors are being forced out of business,” said tobacco wholesaler Alan Beck, who operates a wholesale business at 2305 S Agnew Ave.
Beck said he has complained to Tax Commission officials for more than four years about the “blatantly illegal” sale of untaxed tobacco products by a few dishonest Oklahoma wholesale operators. (more…)

A state appeals court has upheld a San Francisco jury’s award of $2.85 million in damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes for 27 years, ruling that she relied on tobacco companies’ claims that their products were safe.

In another development, San Francisco’s ban on tobacco sales in drugstores survived a legal challenge from Philip Morris. City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office said the tobacco company had dropped its appeal of a ruling upholding the year-old ordinance.
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NEW YORK (AP) - The New York City Council has passed a bill that outlaws sales of all flavored tobacco products - going a few steps beyond a federal ban.

The Food and Drug Administration recently banned manufacturing, importing, marketing and distribution of cigarettes made to taste like candy, fruit and cloves.

The City Council passed a bill Wednesday that would include all flavored tobacco products, like small cigars and chewing tobacco. The law would ban sales in New York City.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the bill and is expected to sign it.

The FDA is looking at whether to add more of those products to its ban.

Officials and health experts say flavored products are more appealing to young people and can hook children on smoking and tobacco at young ages.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is seeking to increase the state’s tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack to $1.98. That increase, if passed by the state legislature, would catapult Illinois from its current rank of 30th to the 16th highest cigarette tax state in the nation, edging out New Hampshire where the tax is $1.78 per pack.

The lowest state tax is Missouri’s at 17 cents a pack, and the highest is Rhode Island’s at $3.46. The overall average among the 50 states is $1.34.
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