Somewhere around 2003 or 2004 the state of R.I went no smoking. No bars, no restaurants, no pool halls. I owned a pool hall(19 solid oak 9 footers with leather drop pockets) at that time and it cost me money. We had a younger clientele who would come play pool just to be able to smoke. We had a cigarette machine that did a brisk business. I had to put a decent looking barrel outside for people to throw their butts in, but people found the need to just throw them in the parking lot. My employees had to sweep up those butts every day.
If memory serves I believe we lost about 15% in business because of the ban. R.I in their usual stupidity tried to say that places like mine and bars and such would gain business because of the ban. That was a huge lie as there were bars who closed down. If it were left up to the business owner the market would have told each of us whether a ban was a good thing or not. If some pool hall went non smoking and I stayed smoking and lost business because of my decision, that is on me. If an employee was a non smoker and didn't like being around it, they didn't have to work at my place. I never hired a non smoker because even though I had 4 huge 1500 CFM Hepa filters and an ozinator, the place still had smoke especially when the place was packed. The filters were set in a series to move the air at so many CFM's per minute. I paid a lot of money to have that system and it went silent when the ban happened.
If memory serves I believe we lost about 15% in business because of the ban. R.I in their usual stupidity tried to say that places like mine and bars and such would gain business because of the ban. That was a huge lie as there were bars who closed down. If it were left up to the business owner the market would have told each of us whether a ban was a good thing or not. If some pool hall went non smoking and I stayed smoking and lost business because of my decision, that is on me. If an employee was a non smoker and didn't like being around it, they didn't have to work at my place. I never hired a non smoker because even though I had 4 huge 1500 CFM Hepa filters and an ozinator, the place still had smoke especially when the place was packed. The filters were set in a series to move the air at so many CFM's per minute. I paid a lot of money to have that system and it went silent when the ban happened.