Looks like you still don't. Go into a Boston neighborhood bar at 1 p.m. and see what happened to the afternoon crowd. The chic yuppies can't replace the retirees in that time block. Notice how many bars don't open until late in the afternoon.
Try this: casino revenues fell 30 percent in Delaware after the ban.
This isn't a theoretical discussion that you "get" or "don't get," it's economic reality.
And, be wary of the conflicting information out of NYC, where bar tax revenues are up since the ban. There, the ban followed both the Clinton stock-market crash and 9/11 while at the same time the tax rate was raised and bars responded by raising the price of drinks. Fewer drinkers paying more.
A better measure would be how well bars in Hoboken have done since the NY smoking ban. Very well, indeed.
Same thing in Maryland after the Delaware ban. We were still living in Delaware when the ban took effect, on the day before Thanksgiving, and just started taking our business another few miles into Maryland.
The name of the place escapes me at the moment, but one of the really popular beach places just closed up shop in Delaware and reopenned in Maryland right after the ban.