Per the successful pub gaming/ pub trivia nights happening in boston: These weren't much of a success until the smoking ban. Most of the gamers I know locally wouldn't even consider going to bars back when they were smoke-filled. It's possible that the smoke-ban increases pub and restaurant owners' willingness to consider hosting periodic game nights. The ultimate problem is that gamers seek out a cheap place to play games, cheaper than paying some sort of membership (a la a clubhouse setting), cheaper than paying for enough drinks/food/games per hour to make it worthwhile for a place to cater primarily to board gamers (over CCGs, tabletop miniatures, bar/restaurant patrons who don't plan to tie up a table for the entire night, etc.) if gamers were willing to spend that much money for a daily accessible public location, the FLGSs wouldn't be dying out. --Julia (Also, per the nicotine v. caffiene argument, when I drink coffee, I'm not forcing you to drink it too. New York has a smoking awareness campaign that more appropriately compares it to really noxious flatulence.)