The smoking ban in Nevada is now official with the signing of the honorable District Judge Douglas Herndon on this past Friday.  Businesses either are very slow in complying with the new law or hoping they will go undetected.  Major properties, such as the MGM Mirage has already complied with the smoking ban.  Time will tell how the Southern Nevada Health District is going to be able to supply support and supply enforcement for the $100 per offense fine of smoking in the wrong places.  To make things even more difficult to understand, some businesses will have civil penalties and any business that did not participate in the lawsuit against the constitutionality of the new law could have both civil and criminal punishments.  Sounds like another great way for the lawyers of the world to unite and make a fortune in this never ending sagas.

Valentines Day is less than a month away and for those of you that have a few extra dollars in their pocket, how about the following.   Beginning February 1, romantics can treat their significant other to a weekend complete with a yacht, helicopter, gondola ride, a champagne bath, dozens of roses, diamonds and much more at The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas.  They will debut its exclusive “Love at Lake Las Vegas” romance package.  The price will be $100,000, making it the most expensive package ever to be offered by the resort.

Starting January 19 at 4:30p in the Main Lobby of the Planet Hollywood Casino (Aladdin) will be some of the most gorgeous women in the United States.  What is the occasion you might ask, it is the 2007 Miss America contestant’s arrival ceremony.  The 2007 pageant will be broadcast live on January 29 from the Theatre of Performing Arts.

Toni Braxton, headliner at the Flamingo Casino, will have her day in court, if she gets her way.  The entertainer is bringing suit against her former personal manager, Barry Hankerson, to the tune of $10 million.  Dispute of record contracts / deals / fraud and several other deceptions are being accused in the lawsuit.  Braxton continues to perform at the Flamingo after the casino extended her original contract from 6 to 12 months.

Legendary rockers Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band will bring their  acclaimed Face The Promise Tour to the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday, March 3. The show is scheduled to begin at 8p and tickets go on sale Saturday, January 20 at 10a at the MGM Grand Garden Arena box office.  Wristband distribution will begin Saturday, January 20 at 6a and end at 9a.  A random number will be drawn and a line-up will be in sequential order beginning with the random number selected. Wristband distribution requires a form of personal identification and does not guarantee that a ticket can be purchased.  Seger is hitting the road for his first concert tour since 1996 in support of his latest album, Face the Promise. The album, which hit stores in September 2006, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and recently was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), marking the 11th platinum album of Segers extraordinary career.  The tour, which features a mixture of new songs and Segers numerous hits, is igniting interest for the new album with sales spiking at a fast rate across the country.

Anyone using the famous U.S. Highway 95 will be happy to know that a car pool lane should be available by year's end.  The high-occupancy vehicle lanes, HOV, will reach one in each direction from the Rainbow Curve and Martin Luther King Boulevard.  This is the first segment of a much larger HOV plan for Las Vegas area.  The two or more occupancy is the rule for who can use the new lanes as well as motorcycles and buses, but no large trucks.  This is part of the final result of $500 million project of widening U.S. 95, and the end result will be four lanes each way with an HOV land in each direction.

For those skeptics who think Las Vegas and Nevada are becoming over built and that Indian Casinos around the country are hurting business, you need to check the most recent month (November) totals just released and look at the winnings being generated in and Nevada.  Even with the Stardust closing, November scored the second highest ever income month for Nevada casino operators, a mere $1.4 billion according to the Gaming Control Board.  That was more than 14% higher than 2005 totals.  To really dampen the doomsday people wanting Vegas to decline, the highest month ever in income to the casino operators happened in January with $1.41 billion.  If that is a declining market, I want in.  Also, of the 11 months of 2006 that have completed totals by the Gaming Board, eight of those months the casino operators won more than $1 billion per month. A side note, all you so-called expert sports betters please take notice. The Nevada Sports Books revenue is up 539% over last November.

Politics are really going to heat up this year in Nevada, on November 2, 2007 University of Las Vegas will host a first of Nevada, a presidential debate.  This early Democratic presidential selection process is being held in five cities throughout the US and Nevada gets to be in the light of this nation election process.  This is all a prelude to the final Democrats' convention to be held in Denver in 2008. 

Speaking of politics, the new governor of Nevada Jim Gibbons will reveal his dynamic changes come January 22, 2007.  This is the date the newly elected governor has declared Nevada is really going to under go some changes when his new state budget is released.  "Maybe" this is the time for a real elected official to think of the state and the people first and not the standard good old boy network.  Only one week more to wait to see if actions do speak louder than words.