Strike up a match for the tobacco industry, but smolder the cigarette for the FDA. That’s the two-sided decision a federal judge made on Friday.

U.S. District Judge William Osteen ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can regulate tobacco, including requiring stores to ID people age 26 and under who are purchasing tobacco. The FDA also got the go-ahead to regulate vending machines that sell cigarettes.

Some are calling it the tobacco industry’s worst defeat in history. President Clinton said the decision allows Americans to protect their children “from a lifetime of addiction and the prospect of having their lives cut short by the diseases that come with that addiction.”

However, it wasn’t a lay-down, drag ’em out defeat. The tobacco industry struck one up when Osteen ruled that the FDA can’t regulate tobacco advertising. That means no restrictions on where Joe Camel and his counterparts can appear. This part of the ruling puts a halt to FDA plans to ban tobacco billboards near schools and playgrounds and to limit ads in teen magazines, among other things.

The tobacco and advertising industries think the ad ruling was necessary because the FDA plans violated their First Amendment rights to free speech. Although the decision strikes up a victory and loss for both sides, Osteen’s ruling was called for, even if you believe tobacco is a sin.

Now, tobacco may put billboards near schools and children. But whether those billboards affect the children is not the tobacco and advertising moguls’ faults. It’s the responsibility of parents who don’t want their kids to smoke to make sure those billboards and hats don’t have a smoking effect.

If you want your kids to smoke, hand them a cigarette. If you don’t, teach them and influence them not to light up.