Smokers can legally enjoy a cigarette after a restaurant meal or with a cocktail in their favorite bar for another year at least.

A Senate-passed bill that would have banned smoking in virtually all workplaces -- including restaurants and bars -- will not make it out of a House committee this session, a spokesman for Speaker Bill Murphy said Tuesday.

"The bill is effectively dead for this session," press secretary Larry Berman said.

Murphy is concerned about the impact a smoking ban could have on revenue at the state's two gambling halls, Lincoln Park and Newport Grand Jai Alai, where there are rooms that allow players to puff while they push the buttons on video lottery terminals (VLTs). The Speaker, Berman said, "would like to get studies on what happened in other states. This is the state's third-largest revenue stream. If it impacted other states, it might impact Rhode Island. He'd like to see it come back in January with legislation that is studied a little more."

Berman said a study commission will be formed to examine the issue once the House of Representatives adjourns for the year. It will be made up of House members, he added, but how many and who has not been determined.

The bill's prime sponsor in the House, Rep. Elizabeth Dennigan of Pawtucket and East Providence, conceded that it is "probably correct" that the ban she has proposed for several years running will fail once again this year. But she held out a grain of hope that Murphy would consider a compromise that would have exempted the VLT facilities from the ban.

"That way," she said, "we would have a pretty comprehensive ban instead of no ban at all."

But Berman said Murphy prefers to go ahead with the study commission.

Dennigan acknowledged that Delaware, a state with roughly the same population of Rhode Island which has VLTs but no casinos, "did have a decrease" in revenue after a smoking ban went into effect.

But, she noted, the 30 percent decrease experienced in the first three months dropped to a 10 percent decrease after six months. Dennigan said she is waiting for the one-year statistics to see whether the decrease eventually leveled off.

"It's an important public health issue," Dennigan said. "That should be the utmost factor."

The most recent data on the effects of second-hand smoke, Dennigan claims, shows that "it is even more deadly than we thought. Even with intermittent exposure, it hurts every organ in the body."

In the General Assembly, forming a study commission is widely recognized as a way to kill or delay legislation while, in Dennigan's words, "placating the sponsor of the bill.

"I don't think it helps us," Dennigan said when asked if a study commission is preferable to the outright defeat of the bill. "I don't think a study commission sitting around with the hospitality industry is going to be that beneficial."

If the smoking ban is dead, Dennigan said, "it will be back next year. Strange things happen in the last couple of weeks, so we're keeping our hopes up. But if not, we will be back."

Sen. Susan Sosnowski of South Kingstown, who saw her version of the bill pass the Senate 25-7, said she too still holds out hope that the House will reconsider the issue.

"I don't think a study commission is the way to go," Sosnowski said, noting that even if the bill passed, it would not be effective until March 2004.