- Employees and anti-smoking groups call out legislators for not covering the smoking issue but pushing other items through like tax breaks for casinos.
- The groups want to see legislators pass S1878 in the senate and A4541 in the Assembly.
- Casinos say they will lose revenues if smoking is banned permanently throughout the venues.
Smoking has been a hot topic of debate in Atlantic City for quite some time. Casino employees and anti-smoking groups want to see legislation approved to ban the action altogether. Casinos say that if they ban smoking, they will see a significant drop in revenues which hurts the city and state when it comes to payments as well as the venues losing out on earnings.
For months now, the smoking ban effort has amped up and today, a news conference is taking place in Trenton with casino employees and anti-smoking advocates hoping to push legislators to take action.
No More Smoking At Casinos!
Currently in New Jersey, gaming facilities are the only workplace that can offer indoor smoking. Employees feel they must choose between their health and a paycheck and want to see a full ban put in place.
There are two pieces of legislation currently on the table in New Jersey that would solve the issue, S1878 and A4541. Both bills have some support, but it might not be enough to pass into law. The focus of the conference today will be to provide insight into the issue and hopefully get lawmakers on board for change.
Casino Employees Against Smoking’s (Harmful) Effects (CEASE) has pointed out that lawmakers are moving quickly to protect the casinos with the PILOT legislation that will remove online sports and casino gaming from totals when it comes to payments to the government. Legislators seem very concerned in passing this legislation, but not as concerned over the health and well-being of employees and casino visitors.
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The group feels that the same effort should be made in considering the smoking ban. It will be interesting to see if the conference results in more attention to the smoking legislation or if the process will continue to be stalled.
COVID-19 Argument for the Anti-Smoking Case
When it comes to arguing the case for anti-smoking, proponents use the argument that casinos were able to survive when COVID-19 hit and smoking was banned on a temporary basis, so they can with a full time ban.
And this is seemingly true. Smoking was banned for many months in casino venues across the United States due to the contagious nature of the virus. Players still visited, enjoyed games, and helped the casinos turn a profit. For proponents, they feel the argument is valid and the temporary ban was an example as to how casinos can function without smoking.
The casinos do not agree, but they really don’t have an argument when it comes to the data. Casinos were making money and seeing visitors during the ban. We shall see in the coming days if the conference has any affect in shifting the legislation and what will happen in Atlantic City. Will smoking eventually be banned?
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