By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

KC voters approved a tough smoking ban in April, but very quietly City Council members already are looking at changing it.

The City Charter says it would take just 9 of the 13 City Council members to alter what voters endorsed five months ago.

-- One change under consideration would weaken the voter-approved law and allow smoking in retail tobacco shops.

-- The other change, though, appears to reduce where a person may smoke on a casino. That would be a positive development -- if that's what the ordinance would really do.

The voter-approved ordinance prohibits smoking in a "casino gaming area." The law defines a casino gaming area as "an excursion gambling boat .. and shall include the paths of ingress and egress immediately adjacent to and contiguous with the excursion gambling boat."

Essentially, that's a huge part of the gambling parts of the casino.

The new language that the City Council could soon see would state the following:

"Casino gaming area means the area of a state-regulated casino accessible only by those with a valid member’s card, player’s card, or its equivalent, that allows entrance into the restricted area and within which gaming is allowed."

These changes will need full review by Mayor Mark Funkhouser and the City Council.

The council certainly should not become emboldened and start altering other parts of the voter-approved smoke-free ordinance.

The politicians especially should not cave in to bars and restaurants that want exemptions from the law.