They’re no longer on a roll.
A pair of “roll your own” tobacco stores — one in Chinatown, the other in Staten Island, and both the bane of tax collectors — have agreed to shut down by Feb. 1, city officials said today.
Island Smokes, which operates both locations, had been skirting cigarette tax laws by providing customers with loose tobacco, tubes of cigarette paper and in-store access to cigarette-making machines — essentially, selling untaxed cigarettes, officials said.
The company had been sued by city lawyers, and today agreed to shut down in settlement of that lawsuit, according to a Law Department spokeswoman.
At least five other “roll your own” businesses have sprung up since Island Smokes came on the city’s radar, and several have been issued case and desist letters, the spokeswoman said.
The letters warn that they do not close down voluntarily, they, too, will be subject to a lawsuit seeking a judge’s order to shut them down.
Sales of non-taxed cigarettes rob the city of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue, officials said.
“The success of this lawsuit should serve as a reminder to others thinking of ‘gimmicks’ to skirt New York City’s tough cigarette laws that the city will enforce these laws vigorously,” said Michael Cardozo, who heads the Law Department, which brought the law suit.