Atlantic Metropolis On line casino Smoking Cessation Laws Features Committee Assist

Atlantic Metropolis on line casino smoking is allowed on as much as 25% of the gaming flooring. However that would quickly change after laws looking for to shut the indoor tobacco use loophole moved out of its first committee Monday in Trenton.

Supporters of laws to require Atlantic Metropolis casinos to finish indoor smoking have a good time after a invoice gained committee assist on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. The casinos declare 1000’s of jobs could be misplaced if smoking is extinguished. (Picture: NJ Senate Democrats)

Senate Invoice 1493 seeks to amend New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act to shut the tobacco exemption afforded to casinos in Atlantic Metropolis. The laws was handed through social gathering traces Monday within the Senate Well being, Human Companies, and Senior Residents Committee.

S1493 comes from state Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex), who has been making an attempt to make the 9 casinos down the shore go smoke-free for years. The laws is his reintroduced on line casino smoking invoice that was numbered Senate Invoice 264 final 12 months.

Monday’s 5-1 vote noticed Vitale and his committee Democratic colleagues vote in favor of shifting the anti-casino smoking statute ahead. Vitale was joined by Sens. Renee Burgess (D-Irvington), Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey Metropolis), Senate President Professional Tempore Shirley Turner (D-Ewing Township), and Andrew Zwicker (D-Hillsborough).

Turner is a major cosponsor of S1493 and has championed efforts to extinguish on line casino smoking in earlier legislative periods. Turner and Zwicker sat in on the committee for Sens. Troy Singleton (D-Moorestown) and Angela McKnight (D-Jersey Metropolis).

Two committee Republicans, Sens. Owen Henry (R-Previous Bridge) and Holly Schepisi (R-Westwood), shunned voting. Sen. Robert Singer (R-Lakewood) voted within the minority.

On line casino Smoking Milestone

Efforts to finish on line casino smoking in Atlantic Metropolis have lingered within the Trenton capital for a few years. It’s been greater than 18 years since most staff in New Jersey gained the authorized proper to work in an atmosphere freed from poisonous secondhand smoke.

Members of On line casino Workers Towards Smoking Results (CEASE) say they can’t wait any longer. The grassroots coalition that began in New Jersey has rallied assist for smoke-free casinos in Atlantic Metropolis. The group has since expanded, with chapters in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kansas, and Virginia, the place on line casino smoking additionally persists.

CEASE hailed Monday’s committee vote.

We thank the committee for voting to go laws that may instantly enhance our office situations and absolutely defend 1000’s of frontline on line casino staff from the hazards of secondhand smoke,” a press release supplied to On line casino.org learn.

“As we speak is a good day in our battle for a more healthy office, and we gained’t cease combating for this laws till we will lastly breathe smoke-free air at work. We urge lawmakers to go this invoice in the case of the Senate flooring, as a result of nobody needs to be compelled to decide on between their well being and a paycheck,” the discharge continued.

S1493 has been directed to the Senate Finances & Appropriations Committee, the place it’s set for additional consideration.

Jobs vs. Well being

The crux of the legislative debate about Atlantic Metropolis on line casino smoking boils all the way down to figuring out if a tobacco ban would end result within the 9 casinos successful much less cash on their gaming flooring. Two research on the problem reached completely different conclusions.

The On line casino Affiliation of New Jersey commissioned Spectrum Gaming, probably the most revered analysis corporations within the U.S. gaming trade, to research the impression of a smoking ban.

Spectrum mentioned in its 2022 report {that a} full smoking ban would end in an almost 11% decline in brick-and-mortar gross gaming income within the first 12 months after implementation. The on line casino win drop-off would result in as a lot as $44 million in diminished gaming taxes and will result in as many as 2,500 job losses, Spectrum mentioned.

In a contrasting examine, C3 Gaming, fashioned solely in 2021, wrote in a 2022 analysis temporary titled  “Analysis of Submit-Pandemic Non-Smoking Traits in U.S. Casinos” that the allowance of indoor smoking is now not important to gaming income well being.

C3 researchers countered claims made by Atlantic Metropolis on line casino execs that recommended gamblers who wish to smoke would take their enterprise to close by Philadelphia. That’s the place a number of casinos proceed to permit indoor cigarette and cigar smoking.

Ought to the New Jersey Legislature shut the smoking loophole and prohibit smoking in Atlantic Metropolis casinos, gamblers from New York, New Jersey, and Jap Pennsylvania can have solely 4 choices in the event that they wish to gamble in a smoking atmosphere and none of them provides the identical gaming/leisure expertise as Atlantic Metropolis,” the C3 report declared.

The C3 conclusion references indoor smoking remaining at Dwell! On line casino & Resort Philadelphia, Harrah’s Philadelphia, Rivers On line casino Philadelphia, and Valley Forge On line casino Resort.

Wind Creek Bethlehem, about an hour north of Philly, additionally permits indoor smoking. Parx On line casino Philadelphia, nonetheless, which is the richest on line casino within the state, doesn’t.

Some lawmakers in New Jersey — primarily Republicans — suppose there may be attainable options to higher defend employee well being than imposing an entire ban. New Jersey Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic), as soon as a significant supporter of a on line casino smoking ban who flipped his place after listening to from the casinos, is reportedly contemplating introducing a concession invoice that might proceed to permit some type of indoor smoking.

Concepts floated embrace absolutely enclosed smoking rooms the place slot machines and some desk video games would function. The casinos have assured lawmakers that solely volunteer staff would work in such environments.

CEASE members aren’t shopping for it.

“Sen. Polistina shouldn’t introduce his so-called ‘compromise’ invoice that may solely compromise the well being of Atlantic Metropolis staff,” CEASE wrote. “Solely a few weeks in the past, he informed staff that [S1493] didn’t have the votes to get out of this committee. However right here we’re celebrating this milestone. The practice is leaving the station and it’s time for him to get on board or get out of the way in which.”