Atlantic Metropolis on line casino employees supportive of ending indoor smoking on the 9 gaming resorts are hoping a management change on the On line casino Affiliation of New Jersey is of their favor.
Anti-casino smoking advocates collect in Atlantic Metropolis in April, with Ocean On line casino Resort standing tall within the background. Many Atlantic Metropolis on line casino employees say their workplaces must be absolutely freed from air contaminated by tobacco smoke. (Picture: AP)
Resorts On line casino Lodge CEO Mark Giannantonio this week was named president of the CANJ. The affiliation is the lobbying group representing the pursuits of the Atlantic Metropolis casinos within the New Jersey Trenton capital.
Giannantonio changed outgoing Onerous Rock Atlantic Metropolis CEO Joe Lupo within the position. Lupo spoke out in protection of casinos being allowed to allow indoor smoking on as much as 25% of their gaming area. However resort employees aligned with “On line casino Workers In opposition to Smoking’s Results (CEASE),” the nonprofit main the anti-casino smoking combat in Atlantic Metropolis, hope Giannantonio is perhaps extra receptive to their regulatory marketing campaign.
It’s been beautiful to see the lengths to which CANJ has gone in disregarding our well being, even when the info don’t help claims concerning the financial penalties,” a CEASE letter addressed to Giannantonio this week declared.
“We would like Atlantic Metropolis casinos to thrive. We additionally need to be round for our youngsters and grandkids for a lot of extra years. We concern that persevering with to work in a smoke-filled setting will jeopardize that,” the CEASE letter, signed by the group’s three co-founders, Nicole Vitola, Pete Naccarelli, and Lamont White, continued.
Trade Claims Rejected
The 9 casinos say a whole smoking ban on their gaming flooring would put the properties at a aggressive drawback. Casinos in close by Philadelphia allow smoking in sure areas. The Atlantic Metropolis gaming trade argues that it’s already tough to draw gamblers to the New Jersey shore outdoors of the summer season months. Stripping a key aspect of their operations — indoor smoking — would solely make issues worse.
The CANJ commissioned a examine on what kind of penalties a smoke-free mandate would have on enterprise. Spectrum Gaming Group concluded that an indoor smoking ban would result in an 11% discount in annual gross gaming income within the first 12 months after implementation. That, the overview reasoned, would result in as many as 2,500 jobs being minimize.
The casinos, in addition to the gaming union that represents about 10,000 resort employees, are behind these conclusions. They cause that the examine offers factual information as to why a smoking ban shouldn’t be at present thought of in Trenton. For the state to pressure the casinos to go absolutely smoke-free, the New Jersey Legislature would want to amend its Smoke-Free Air Act. It handed that invoice in 2006, which features a provision permitting on line casino smoking.
CEASE says the Spectrum examine, which was paid for by the Atlantic Metropolis on line casino trade, reached unjustified conclusions to solely fulfill its consumer.
“A very impartial examine performed by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming launched in June discovered that COVID-19 has modified buyer habits and that smoke-free casinos have really carried out higher financially than their smoking counterparts,” the CEASE letter said. The C3 overview was not commissioned by CEASE.
Name to Motion
Lupo sought to discredit the CEASE marketing campaign. Throughout his handle earlier than the Public Relations Council of Better Atlantic Metropolis in February, Lupo stated {that a} smattering of anti-smoking on line casino employees petitioning alongside the Boardwalk may not be absolutely consultant of the gaming labor pressure as a complete.
I don’t imagine that 30 folks strolling down the Boardwalk represents the 21,000 staff which can be employed within the casinos,” Lupo stated of an earlier CEASE occasion.
CEASE claims to now have “1000’s of on line casino sellers” and different resort employees supporting its smoke-free mission. The group would tremendously like so as to add Giannantonio to its checklist of supporters.
“As you start your tenure main CANJ, we urge you to reject enterprise as typical and as an alternative take this chance to face up for what is true,” the letter concluded.
