Momentum appeared to be building over the last two years to finally ban smoking in one of the very last public places in New Jersey where it’s still legally allowed: Atlantic City casinos.
With casino workers fearful that second-hand smoke being blown in their faces while dealing cards could cost them their lives, more than half of the lawmakers in Trenton co-sponsored a the latest proposal to end the exemption. Long-awaited public hearings were held earlier this year. Votes were scheduled for this month.
But now it’s falling apart. Again.
Many supporters of the bipartisan bill are shocked and outraged the momentum for a complete ban has suddenly evaporated, with the measure’s fate now up in the air. They say it’s all because of intense lobbying from the state’s powerful casino industry and political pressure from powerful Democratic and Republican officials.
Several sponsors, from both parties, have pulled their names from the bill (S264) and legislative leaders haven’t been able to muster enough votes for it to even take its first step out of the state Senate health committee. It’s all but certain the measure won’t be taken up as planned during the current lame-duck legislative session that ends Jan. 9.
Lawmakers who once supported the proposal say they’re worried about warnings from casinos that cutting smoking sections would force cigarette-clutching gamblers — a sizable segment of their clientele — across the river to Pennsylvania, potentially costing Atlantic City thousands of jobs and valuable revenue for the industry and state.
Those lawmakers are instead considering compromises recently proposed by the casinos that would stop short of a full ban, including building separate, enclosed smoking rooms in which employees could choose to work, as well as new ventilation systems. Casinos are currently allowed open-air smoking sections on 25% of their floors.
“As of now, the bad guys have won,” said Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, a co-sponsor…
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