If it matters, this was in Houston. Apparently Houston is using tobacco lawsuit settlement money to enforce age limits on buying cigarettes.
I was at a local bar and grill. The owner had put a remote controlled power switch on the cigarette machine. This is supposed to keep under aged people from buying cigarettes. To buy cigarettes you have to get the bartender or waitress to get the remote and go back with you and turn on the machine. The machine is back by the restrooms and is not visible from the bar or dining area.
A girl at the bar mentioned they did that where she worked. It was the same situation: a place that allows kids, and where the cigarette machine is out of employees sight.
Seems a whole lot easier to eliminate the machine in the first place and sell them from behind the bar. Heck, even in the fancy strip bars, the waitress’ll go buy them out of the machine for you.
I haven’t seen an honest-to-Dog cigarette machine in a while. They used to be all over: Hotel lobbies, restaurants, etc. Then, recently, I couldn’t find one even if I looked. I was under the impression they were banned, myself. (I define a cigarette machine as a big panel-and-glass coin-op job with plastic handles near the dispensing door near the floor and enough glass to count the remaining packs, which were vertically stacked so they would fall down into the bin protected by the one-way door. I haven’t seen one of those in a while.)