Posted By: Margaret Pozzini

By SANDRA CHEREB, Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. - Is Nevada, the Wild West of vice, becoming a bunch of citified goody-goodies?
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Nevada voters last week approved a ballot measure banning smoking at bars that serve food, and around the slot machines at supermarkets, gas stations and convenience stores.

The vote came as a surprise to many. Nevada, after all, is the home of all-night casino gambling, on-the-house booze, all-you-can-eat buffets and legalized prostitution. Tourists are openly invited to indulge their vices and get naughty ("What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," as the winking slogan goes.) Smoking has long been regarded as what you do with your other hand while gambling.

The outcome of last Tuesday's election suggested to some that the city slickers and the baby boomers are exerting their influence in this fast-growing state of about 2.5 million.

"Nevada has had a libertarian reputation and has tried to uphold it, but that has been slipping away for quite a while," said Michael Green, a history professor at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"While we encourage people to come here and do things that are bad for them, we also have a growing baby boomer population. And that population is probably a bit more health-conscious and might not want to be exposed to secondhand smoke."

Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said: "It's a far more urban and thus regulated environment, and smoking is part of that."

Nevada has the nation's highest rate of smoking-related deaths and one of the lowest rates of smoke-free workplaces, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Question 5, or the Clean Indoor Air Act, was backed by public health groups and passed 54 percent to 46 percent. It bans smoking in any bars that serve meals, as well as in slot machine sections of grocery and convenience stores, and at video arcades, shopping malls, schools and day-care centers.

The measure does not apply to the gambling areas at casinos, which are the most powerful industry in the state and the engine of Nevada's economy. Anti-smoking forces said the big casinos have good ventilation systems and do not allow children.

Geno Hill, who owns five Rum Runner bars offering food and slots in Las Vegas and who is the president of the Nevada Tavern Owners Association, said he thought the independent leanings of Nevada's rural counties would snuff out Question 5.

"We were pretty comfortable the rural counties wouldn't let California come in here any more than they are," Hill said. "By golly, they did."

Hill's organization backed Question 4, a competing, less restrictive anti-smoking measure that would have applied to bars and restaurants that allow children. Voters rejected it, 52 percent to 48 percent.

Instead voters in Nevada's most populous counties — Clark (the home of Las Vegas), Washoe (which includes Reno), Douglas, and Carson City — as well as rural Churchill and Lincoln counties, approved Question 5. The remaining 11 rural counties turned it down.

With the law taking effect Dec. 8, many owners of small bars and restaurants are struggling to figure out what it means for them and what they should do.

"They've told us either people can smoke and gamble and drink, or people can eat and gamble and drink," Hill said. And since drinking and gambling are more profitable than food, he suggested many bars may give up serving food.

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