The Players' Retreat gets half its business after 10 p.m.

The Raleigh institution is a popular with customers who want to shoot a game of pool, drink and have a cigarette at night said, Gus Gusler, owner of the business. If he has to ban smoking while a nearby bar allows it, his smoking customers will leave.

The Players' Retreat also offers family dining — kids eat free on Sundays. The current smoking ban bill would require Gusler to either ban smoking in his establishment or ban children from the building. 

"I was worried somebody was going to slide something at the last mintute," said Gusler, whose mother died of a smoking-related heart problem about 16 years ago.

"I've never taking a draw off a cigarette in my life and I completely, 100 percent supported the bill in its original form with no exemptions," he said. "Now I will do anything I've got to do to stop the exemption because it's going to put me out of business."