The East Coast Gaming Congress wraps upward Th inward Atlantic City, and piece a slew of issues make been discussed during the two-day event at the Hard John Rock Hotel & Casino, a nearby billboard has caused a chip of a stir.
A new wrap up on a billboard along the Atlantic City Expressway just now exterior of the cassino town went upward prior to the 2023 ECGC. The hoarding displays an anti-casino smoking content that thanks South island of Jersey body politic lawmakers who are supporting a full forbidding on baccy usage indoors the nine casinos.
The hoarding requests that New island of Jersey Senate President St. Nicholas Scutari (D-Middlesex, Somerset, Union) and Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) reserve the state general assembly to vote on bills seeking to confining the gambling casino smoking loophole.
Senate Bill 264 and Assembly Bill 2151 are monovular pieces of legislating that would terminate the casinos’ freedom from the state’s 2006 strip indoor air law. The measures make enough back up among body politic lawmakers to get off the statutes to Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) desk.
The governor has stated that he would sign on a government note finish cassino smoking. But Democratic leaders inward capital of New Jersey are reportedly mothballing the legislative efforts until after this November’s election, when all 120 seats of the New island of Jersey General Assembly and Senate are on the ballot.
Smoke-Free Advocacy
The anti-casino smoking hoarding was paid for by Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), a California-based protagonism radical working to assure that all public places experience plumb indoor air. The ANR is workings in Atlantic City with a grassroots fusion called CEASE, Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects.
Many Atlantic City cassino workers experience told state lawmakers that they are tired of workings inwards smoke-filled environments. During an Assembly commission auditory modality on the smoking matter endure month, several gambling casino employees testified on how used fume has negatively impacted their health.
Table spunky dealer Charles Hardin Holley Diebler’s testimony resonated with many, as the Tropicana employee says she’s undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer.
“I passion my job. I don’t want to leave. But my oncologists are telling me this is a life-or-death choice,” Diebler told the Assembly Health and Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts committees.
‘Let’s Vote’ on Casino Smoke
The ANR billboard asks the Democratic leading to reserve a voter turnout on the anti-smoking bills sooner than later.
Thousands of Atlantic Ocean City cassino workers merit a voter turnout at present to protect their wellness and they are waiting for Senate President Scutari and Speaker Coughlin to support that balloting as before long as possible,” Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of ANR, said in a release.
Hallett added that there’s no more logical explanation for continuing to wait the bills that would liberty chit easily if a vote on either statute were held today.
The casinos in general counterbalance a replete(p) smoking ban. The Casino Association of New Jersey, which lobbies in Trenton on behalf of the ix resorts, claims one-year gaming revenue would be burn by well-nigh 25% with no smoking. The grouping says those financial losses would outcome inward drastic layoffs.
Despite robust 2022 brick-and-mortar revenue gaming revenue of $2.78 billion, the IX casinos said their profits dropped nearly 5% last-place year because of high-pitched overhead.