It's OK to Smoke in Omaha if You Play Keno

There is no public smoking now in Omaha. Fair enough, if the city chooses to pass the law and the citizens choose to support it. And if the citizens want to divert their emergency response teams every time Big Brother calls 911 to report a violation, so be it.

What really gets me, though, are the smoking ban exceptions:

The new smoking ban applies to bars that serve food and those that don't have keno licenses. Some bars have applied for keno licenses to keep their smokers happy, and a few decided to give up food instead of smoking.

So let me get this straight... Smoking is bad for everyone's health and must be banned in order to protect the innocents. It is, in fact, so dangerous that citizens are being encouraged to make emergency 911 calls to rat out public smokers. But only if they aren't playing Keno.

Either we should be expecting an announcement soon from the scientific community about how Keno neutralizes the effects of second hand smoke OR the city has succeeded in establishing a brilliant system for extorting Keno cash from local businesses.