State law allows smoking on 25 percent of the casino floor but some workers say they are tired of getting sick from secondhand smoke.
A group of casino workers in New Jersey asked a judge on Monday to ban smoking in their workplace, citing the toxic effects of working in a “poisonous” atmosphere, while the state argued such a move could jeopardize a half-billion-dollar pot of money for senior citizens and the disabled.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Bartels, who listened as both sides presented their case, did not issue a ruling but said he would make a decision “as soon as possible.”
Banning smoking in Atlantic City’s nine casinos could be an enormous hit to the city’s gambling industry, which relies on money won from in-person gamblers and whose business has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Ending smoking in casinos could have an equally profound effect on workers who say they are sick of breathing other people’s smoke in order to earn a living. The workers claim secondhand smoke has caused them to suffer from illnesses including bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory ailments, and several cases of cancer.
Whether to ban smoking in casinos is a controversial issue not only in Atlantic City but also in states such as Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Virginia, where workers are waging similar campaigns.
Currently, smoking is permitted on 25 percent of the casino floor in Atlantic City, but those areas are contiguous, allowing secondhand smoke to be present in varying degrees throughout the casino floor.
Last month, the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents dealers at Bally’s, Caesars, and Tropicana casinos, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn New Jersey’s indoor smoking law, which bans smoking in nearly every workplace except casinos.
“The purpose of the act is to protect workers from sickness and death,” said lawyer Nancy Erika Smith, who brought the lawsuit. It “is not to put money in the casinos’ pockets. We are seeking to end a special law which does a favor for casinos and seriously harms workers.”
Ms. Smith also raised the issues of equal protection under the law and what she described as a constitutional right to safety.
Deputy Attorney General Robert McGuire, representing Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, and the state’s acting health commissioner, said no such constitutional right exists. The governor has said he would sign a smoking ban into law, but he recently expressed concerns about the economic impact, an issue raised by the casinos.
Mr. McGuire said citizens have the freedom to pursue safety and happiness, but nowhere does the government guarantee those things to them as a right.
He also cited the state’s Casino Revenue Fund, which receives 8 percent of the casino’s revenue to fund programs for senior citizens and the disabled. In fiscal year 2024, $526 million from the fund would be used for such programs.
His argument implied that this money would be at risk if smoking was not allowed in casinos as smokers would spend their money elsewhere.
Smoking opponents dispute the notion that casinos would lose business, citing a study that showed casinos that ended smoking earned higher revenues.
Mr. Smith said the argument that “people should be poisoned” so that casinos can make more money and generate more state tax revenue is “repugnant” and “shocking.”
Lawyer Seth Ptasiewicz, who represents casino workers who want to keep the current smoking policy, said steep economic declines have followed the imposition of smoking bans in several places, including Atlantic City, which tried it in 2008 but quickly reversed course after a nearly 20 percent decline in casino revenue in two weeks.
He said casino workers “understand that [smoking] is part of the job, and they accept it,” adding, “No job is 100 percent safe.”
One of Mr. Ptasiewicz’s clients, Unite Here Local 54, said it fears up to a third of its 10,000 members could lose their jobs if smoking is banned, according to court documents.
Christopher Porrino, an attorney representing the Casino Association of New Jersey, said the state Legislature has had nearly 50 years to change Atlantic City’s smoking policy, but it has chosen not to do so.
“In a few weeks, it will be 46 years since the first casino opened in Atlantic City,” Mr. Porrino said. “From that day forward, and every day since, patrons of casinos have continuously smoked.”
The anti-smoking workers are in their fourth year of pushing to ban smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos, a move that previously relied on political efforts to get lawmakers to change the law.
Shortly after a bill that would end smoking advanced out of a state Senate committee, other lawmakers introduced a competing bill that would continue to allow smoking on 25 percent of the casino floor but reconfigure where it is allowed. Under the bill, no employee would be forced to work in a smoking area against their will.
Neither of the measures have been acted on in months.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
