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January 21, 2007

Nanny State Nevada

Jack Kemp
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has an article about the statewide anti-smoking law that just went into effect. It forces restaurants, convenience stores and taverns that serve food to ban smoking, limiting lighting up to bars, strip clubs and casinos (big political contributors: surprise, surprise).
 
One of the consequences is that small restaurants that are owned by bars are forced to either close the restaurant or the bar. The restaurant generally loses in that choice. And the categories that lawmakers draw up in their minds bear only a partial resemblance to how business is conducted in Nevada and the impact on jobs. For example, the article states:

'Food is a loss leader at Jackson's, so the restaurant makes all its money from its 15 video-poker machines, Slipock said. A significant hit to the supper club's gaming revenue could imperil the jobs of some of the eatery's 20 employees. "We'll start looking at those hard decisions in the next three or four weeks," Slipock said. "We're going to do everything we can to avoid going that (layoff) route. We're just trying our best to work with the ban. Unfortunately, the bell has already been rung, and we're going to do what we have to do to survive." '
Smokers can step outside a restaurant for a smoke in Nevada, but the winter nights are cold and summer in the desert comes without air conditioning.

It would seem that most  Nevada lawmakers have never owned a public establishment in their state or talked with the owners of one, or sized up its situation themselves. I guess they eat at the country club. Or they're too busy with real estate deals.

They have voted the voters of Nevada out of a number of jobs. The politically correct politicians and big casino owners must have figured that anyone who could be talked into throwing away their money in a local casino could be persuaded to vote themselves out of a job. And it looks like they are right.

The more the politicians make going out seem like a visit to your aunt's, the more people will gamble online or perhaps in some alley. And the lost revenue will hurt the Nanny State - and its poorest citizens - the most.

(Jack Kemp is not the former politician of the same name)

Posted at 12:01 PM | Email | | Share Share
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