A four-year campaign to ban smoking inside Atlantic City’s casinos continues. Anti-smoking advocates, led by Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), protested outside the League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City on Thursday, where Governor Phil Murphy was due to give a speech.
Arguing that exposure to second-hand smoke is causing illnesses among staff members, including cancer and heart disease, the protestors seek to end an exemption in New Jersey’s Clean Air Act that permits smoking inside casinos. However, such bills have repeatedly stalled in the state legislature due to a lack of support from Democratic leadership.
“While today’s outcome is disappointing, our determination remains unshaken,” said Borgata dealer Lamont White in September, after a ruling by Judge Patrick Bartels upheld the right for smoking to continue.
'You can’t get away from it'
The protestors say that they are calling for the same workplace protections afforded to virtually all other workers in New Jersey. The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act of 2006 prohibits smoking in most workplaces, including restaurants, offices, and factories.
“It's horrible when you have three, four, five people blowing smoke in your face,” said protestor Borgata Casino dealer Sandy Smolen, as reported by The Associated Press. “You can't get away from it. You go home with a cough you didn't have that morning.”
“We're tired of doing GoFundMe accounts for people's cancer and heart conditions, and they never smoked a day in their life,” added Ricky Foster, who has been a supervisor-dealer at the Borgata for 21 years.
Backing of Governor Murphy
The state’s Democratic Governor, Phil Murphy, has invested little political capital in the push. However, he has said previously that he will sign the bill to ban casino smoking once it reaches his desk.
“I have an enormous amount of sympathy with them; they’re somehow blaming this on me,” Murphy said, speaking on television with News 12 New Jersey in September. “I just want to repeat what I have been saying for about five years: If a bill comes to my desk that bans smoking in casinos in Atlantic City, I will sign it. Period. I am not equivocating, and I have not equivocated about that. The way to solve this is through legislation."
Nine of the 22 U.S. territories that allow casino gambling ban smoking inside the venues. These include Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington. Meanwhile, smokers at Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, or Pennsylvania casinos must do so in designated areas. Similar campaigns advocating for a smoke-free workplace are also underway in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Virginia, and Rhode Island.
While opponents say that a smoking ban could hurt business, advocates simultaneously argue that casinos in states with smoke-free policies have continued to thrive. October figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed a drop in land-based casino revenue to $208.7 million, as Caesars and Tropicana were the only two casinos reporting higher revenues than in the same month last year.
