Here, health advocacy groups are providing quit-smoking help, including squeeze balls to relieve stress. The Respiratory Health Association offered 25-cent bounties for unwanted ashtrays; 350 had been collected by Tuesday.  Advocates of strict bans said they had been shown to help reduce smoking and had not, generally, resulted in slowdowns for businesses, as some had feared.  But the operators of Illinois’s nine casinos are unconvinced. They predict a 20 percent decrease in business will follow the law, said Tom Swoik, the executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association. There is a high correlation, he said, between people who go to casinos and people who smoke; some Illinois operators say as much as 70 percent of their customers smoke.  Several casinos here, too, are not far from states where smoking bans have not been imposed. Unhappy smokers could cross state lines, the operators say.  “We’re hoping that after the legislature sees the impact of this, they’ll reconsider an exception,” Mr. Swoik said. For now, he said, many casinos have built outside shelters — akin to partly enclosed bus stops — where smokers can take breaks.  The Illinois ban, passed by the legislature, creates some consistency in what had become a patchwork of regulations adopted by municipalities around the state, including Chicago.  “We can all collectively take a breath of fresh air as this long-awaited law finally takes hold,” Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich said in a statement released Tuesday. More than 16,000 people in Illinois die each year from smoking-related illnesses, he said.  For violations, smokers can be fined up to $250, the governor’s office said. Businesses may be fined $250, more for multiple violations.  Chicago officials said the departments of public health and business affairs and licensing would enforce the ban during regular inspections. Residents may also report complaints.  Smoking is still allowed in homes, some hotel rooms and retail tobacco stores.  That exemption has led the owners of Mario’s Taco House in the Humboldt Park neighborhood to transform itself into a tobacco shop. They had long sold cigars here but are adding specialty cigarettes and tobacco — and dropping the tacos, said Mario Martinez, whose family owns the renamed store, Caganchos.  “We realized people still want somewhere to go for this,” he said.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: In Illinois, A Ban Sends Smokers Into the Cold. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
On Tuesday, Illinois banned smoking inside bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, pool halls, casinos and in nearly every other public place.