HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania casino regulators are blaming bad winter weather for a big drop in revenue from slot machines.

The state's 12 casinos reported collecting $171.8 million from slot machines in January, down 8.7 percent from a year ago.

January tax revenue was $91.7 million.

Gaming Control Board Executive Director Kevin O'Toole said Wednesday it's likely that heavy snow and bitter cold kept some gamblers away from Pennsylvania casinos. The casinos have also been dealing with the impact of increased competition from border states.

Harrah's Philadelphia in Chester County suffered the biggest monthly decline, down 16 percent.

CVS' imminent exit from the cigarette and tobacco business — an unprecedented move for a major pharmacy company — is being cheered by many medical professionals and lawmakers as a triumph of corporate responsibility over the bottom line.But industry experts say the strategy shift is less an altruistic endeavor than a savvy marketing ploy from a drugstore giant trying to promote itself as a retail health hub in an age of increasingly self-serve health care.“It's smart business on CVS' part,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, a state steeped in tobacco history.The drugstore chain — the largest in the country by sales with $123 billion in revenue in 2012 — said Wednesday that it will be tobacco-free by Oct. 1. CVS has more than 7,600 stores, making it second in retail locations only to Walgreens.Pharmacies have faced years of criticism from health advocates for juxtaposing tobacco items with medical products.CVS said that it is sacrificing $2 billion in annual revenue with the move.From combined wire sources