Atlantic City casino dealers pushing for a smoking ban received support from several state lawmakers yesterday [Macau time] at a long-awaited hearing on a bill that would end smoking inside the nine casinos.
Dealers, cocktail servers and other casino workers — some of them with breathing ailments and other health problems they suspect are related to secondhand smoke from casino patrons — testified before a state Senate panel in favor of a law that would close a loophole in the state’s 2006 indoor smoking law. That measure was written specifically to exempt casinos from bans on smoking indoors. Currently, smoking is permitted on 25% of a casino floor in Atlantic City.
Although no action was taken on the bill, numerous lawmakers supported a ban, calling it long overdue.
Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City casinos, but in other states where workers have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They are waging similar campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“It’s immoral for the owners of casinos to think their employees are expendable,” said Sen. Joseph Vitale, the committee’s chairperson. “If you smell it, it’s in your lungs.”
Democratic Senator Richard Codey was acting governor in 2006 when the indoor smoking law was adopted.
“Unfortunately, to get that passed I had to agree that casinos could still have smoking,” he said, adding that “it’s time” for the state to implement a casino smoking ban.
Atlantic City’s main casino workers’ union drove four van loads of workers to the hearing as well, taking 60 of them to the state Capitol as a counterpoint to those calling for a smoking ban. These workers back the industry’s position that a smoking ban would place Atlantic City at a competitive disadvantage with casinos in neighboring states.
The issue is among the most divisive in Atlantic City, where even though casino revenue matched its all time high of $5.2 billion last year, only half that amount was won from in-person gamblers. The other half was won online and must be shared with third parties including tech platforms and sports books.
Just three of the nine casinos — Borgata, Ocean and Resorts — surpassed their pre-pandemic revenue levels in terms of money won from in-person gamblers last year.
“I am responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of chips,” said Borgata dealer Pete Naccarelli, one of the leaders of the anti-smoking movement in Atlantic City. “When a player 12 inches away blows a cloud of smoke at me, I can’t move, and I’m prohibited from waving the smoke away, a gesture that would be considered rude. We all have people that love us. We don’t think it’s fair that we should have to choose between a paycheck and our health.”
Lamont White, another Borgata dealer, has been working in the casinos for 38 years.
“Now I’m 60. I realize that people dying in their 40s and 50s is not normal,” he said. “As dealers, we cannot walk away; our job is to take it, no matter how many cigarettes or cigars are lit.”
Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite Here casino workers union, opposes a smoking ban, saying he wants to preserve the jobs of his members. WAYNE PARRY, TRENTON (N.J.), MDT/AP
