Lawmakers still support smoking ban 

If officials of Tri-State Racetrack had any hopes for a legislative exemption from a countywide smoking ban, they may already be in the ashes.

Several Kanawha County legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike, defend the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department's smoking ban, which was expanded July 1, 2008, to include bars and gambling parlors, including Tri-State Racetrack in Nitro.

They say the Legislature gave counties the authority to impose such rules, and it would make lawmakers look weak and irresponsible to reconsider the issue or make exceptions.

For several months Tri-State executives have been blaming dwindling revenues on the county's tough new smoking ban. Racetrack officials say the facility should be exempt because state laws define table games as lotteries and the state as the owner of the operations.

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