Four Cripple Creek casinos are ticketed for letting customers smoke inside.

According to Colorado law only cigar bars can allow it, but some casino owners say they sell enough tobacco to be considered a cigar bar.

Last month Midnight Rose, Double Eagle and Bronco Billy's were given tickets by the city's police chief after a civil complaint was filed. Gold Rush got their ticket on Saturday. The only casino who quit allowing smokers is Double Eagle.

The casino owners who were ticketed may have felt they hit the jackpot.

"There's a way around everything," said Pattie Chavez, a smoker.

Owners found what some would call a loophole around Colorado's State-Wide Smoking Ban Law.

"That's obviously what the casinos think," said Cripple Creek Councilman Gary Ledford.

"It says if it's a casino it's non-smoking, period. That's how I read the law," said Ledford.

But it's not how everyone is interpreting it. Which is why tickets were issued to casinos, who some say, are breaking the law. The state law says establishments selling more than $50,000 in tobacco sales a year may legally call themselves a tobacco bar. That grants them permission to allow indoor smoking.

The owners of all four casinos want to see what fate those tickets bring them before commenting, but in the meantime three of those casino owners are allowing their patrons to continue lighting up.

Some smokers are angry about the tickets. "I don't think that's fair," said Chavez.

While some non-smokers don't know what to make of it. "If they fight it? I'm not sure," said Marion Bond, a non-smoker.

Soon a judge will have the final say.

The three casinos that were ticketed last month go to court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. The fourth casino ticketed has a separate court date.