By Richard Carleton Hacker

Anyone who has become riveted to Fox TV’s new reality show “The Casino” is finding out what many of us already knew: Las Vegas still stands out as the most unique city in America - especially where smoking is concerned. While other municipalities are enacting anti-smoking laws, Las Vegas has been enthusiastically welcoming smokers, building a neon-lit metropolis of elegant nightclubs, restaurants, and lounges that not only permit pipe and cigar smoking, but in many cases, actually encourage it by having well-stocked humidors. Consequently, with 10,000 new residents arriving each month, countless pipe and cigar smokers are finding an accommodating new home. And the record 35 million vacationers who visited Las Vegas last year included a great number of smokers who found they could light their stogies or fire up their briars without incurring the wrath of those who did not enjoy one of life’s greatest pastimes.

Of course, it makes economic sense for the city that never sleeps to open its golden gates to smokers. “It’s always seemed to me that cigar smokers know how to enjoy life,” says George Maloof, the energetic and astute owner of the ultra-hip Palms Casino & Resort. “They eat better, drink better, and stay longer. So why shouldn’t I create an environment that will attract them?” This statement has even more impact when one discovers that Maloof doesn’t even smoke. But that hasn’t stopped him from creating Ghost Bar, one of the most talked-about cigar bars in the country.

Craftsteak serves its complete dinner menu in the lounge and bar, which permits cigar smoking and features 94 single malts and a well-stocked humidor.

The purple-and-green neon-hued cocktail lounge sprawls across the 55th floor of the Palms, which is located just west of the Strip, on Flamingo Road and almost right across from the Rio. In fact, looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows that line the ethereal Ghost Bar lounge, you can take in a panoramic view of the entire Las Vegas skyline, including the Strip and the twinkling carpet of lights that extend to the horizon. But for many, the real view is Ghost Bar itself, a place to see and be seen. A lengthy, crowded, and well-stocked bar - pouring everything from Jack Daniel’s to Louis XIII - occupies the only wall not covered with glass. A variety of drinks are served with ghost-shaped swizzle sticks that glow in the dark. Ask the bartender, and he will pull out an over-engineered stainless steel Bressay M2 humidor equipped with twin helical humidistats. The heavy, aerospace-grade aluminum lid opens slowly via hydraulic springs, as a pair of blue LED lights illuminate the cigars inside, casting an eerie light on an array of premium brands. The lounge itself is furnished with couches and chairs that look like they came from the Jetsons’ living room, while the floor is littered with foam cushions enticing customers to sprawl out and gaze up at a purple recessed ghost with green neon eyes staring down at them.

Stepping through Ghost Bar’s wide double-glass doors brings you onto the expanse of an open patio, where you can smoke a double corona while enjoying a lofty view usually reserved for airline pilots coming in for a landing at McCarran Field. For the daring - or those who have had one cocktail too many - there is one of the most celebrated “stationary thrill rides” in Las Vegas: a plexiglass covered hole in the patio floor inviting the daring to seemingly stand on air and stare down 55 floors to the parking area below. It is a sobering experience. Many cigar smokers delight in appearing to be suspended in midair while puffing on their stogies, as the illumination from below makes their cigar smoke look like ghostly vapors in the night.

Inside the Las Vegas Tinder Box on West Sahara Boulevard.

Back on ground level at the Palms casino, you can enjoy a cigar from the humidor at the bar of N9ne Steak House (that’s how they spell it), a near-duplicate of the famous Chicago eatery with the same name. The only difference is, in Vegas, you have to ask Executive Chef Barry Dakake to prepare one of his famous 36-oz. Porterhouse steaks; you won’t find it on the menu. As might be expected, Chef Dakake is a cigar smoker.

Another great place to enjoy both a cigar and a steak prepared by a cigar-smoking chef is the Charlie Palmer Steak House, located in the sedate, away-from-it-all elegance of the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay. Here, Executive Chef Steve Blandino - who enjoys an Arturo Fuente Hemingway as much as anyone - can prepare the world’s best 22-ounce Kansas City Rib-Eye with truffled mashed potatoes. There is a separate cigar lounge and bar, with a humidor loaded with hard-to-find smokes, and if you dine in that area after 10 p.m., you can smoke at your table.

One of the most relaxed smoking and eating environments in Las Vegas is Craftsteak at the MGM Grand. Soft lights and a den-like atmosphere greet you as you enter. The bar features a collection of 94 single malts, including ultra-rare offerings such as Macallan 50-Year-Old, 30-Year-Old Dalmore Stillman’s Dram, and Old Elgin 50-Year-Old, distilled in 1940 and costing $325 a pour. But no matter what their cost, each single malt is served in a Riedel whisky glass designed specifically for this spirit. Or, you can opt for a larger glass to accommodate an oversized 21/2-inch square ice cube created by Craftsteak’s unique Hoshizaki ice machine; it takes eight hours to make a single cube (fortunately, they are made ahead of time so you won’t have to wait!).

The surrealistic expanse of Ghost Bar is bathed in purple and green neon as a glowing specter parallels the bar. Outside, the patio beckons with a 55-story view that has become a cigar smoker’s paradise.

Craftsteak’s humidor is stocked with a connoisseur’s selection, including Avo Maduro pyramids, the Zino Platinum Crown series, and the tubed Cuesta-Rey Tuscany Centenarios. Cigar smoking is allowed in the lounge and bar, where Craftsteak’s full menu is served. Ask Chef Chris Albrecht to prepare a steak-tasting menu of both corn-fed and grass-fed steaks, along with his plump, spicy Tempura beer-batter onion rings and the best creamed spinach in America.

Another award-winning steakhouse with its own humidor and unparalleled bar selection is the appropriately-named Prime at Bellagio. In fact, there are actually two custom-made humidors at Prime, each stocked with such favorites as Fuente Fuente OpusX, Perdomo Estate Selección Aristocrata, and La Aurora Preferidos. The bar selection includes Chivas Regal 50-Year-Old Royal Salute, one of only 10 bottles shipped to the United States to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 50th anniversary on the throne. The bottle is priced at $10,000, but you can sample this blended rarity for $1,050 a shot. After enjoying Prime’s signature 28-oz. bone-in rib-eye for two, enjoy a robusto on the outside patio that Steve Wynn designed for his own cigar-smoking enjoyment.

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