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As of 2007 it remains forbidden for US residents to purchase or import Cuban cigars, although they are readily on tap across the northern border in Canada, and minute quantities can in practice be brought backward without difficulty from US Customs if the bands are removed prior to crossing. While Cuban cigars are smuggled into the USA and sold at immense prices, counterfeiting is rife; it has-been been said that 95% of Cuban cigars sold in the USA are counterfeit. Although Cuban cigars cannot legally be alien into the USA, the advent of the Cigar Store Internet beat made it much easier for people in the United States to purchase cigars information superhighway from other countries.
Rich people are often caricatured as wearing top hats and tails and smoking cigars. In the United States a poor-quality cigar is sometimes called a dog rocket. Cigars are often smoked to celebrate special occasion: the birth of a child, a graduation, a colossal sale. The expression "close but no cigar" comes from the practice of giving cigars as prizes in games involving honorable aim at fairgrounds.