Press Release - January 13, 2022

Contact: press@no-smoke.org

Atlantic City, NJ – The fight to make Atlantic City casinos smokefree indoors to protect workers from dangerous secondhand smoke is reaching a critical stage as a new legislative session begins in New Jersey this week.

The Press of Atlantic City reported on six state senators re-introducing bipartisan legislation to close the casino smoking loophole yesterday. The paper quoted Senator Vince Polistina, who represents Atlantic City and thousands of casino workers, saying that "the legislation could come up for a vote within the next month or two."

Additionally, reporter David Danzis of Play NJ, who has covered the Atlantic City gaming industry for years, said on a radio show this morning that "smoking in casinos is on life support...we’re talking weeks if not months, smoking in Atlantic City casinos is just gonna be done. Completely gone.” Here's his full quote, which you can also listen to here at around the 9:15 mark:

“Smoking in casinos is on life support. Just yesterday, the new session of the legislature was sworn in, and almost immediately, and this is more a formality, you know a lot of bills get reintroduced that didn’t get passed in the prior session. As many of us expected, the bill to ban the indoor smoking loophole for casinos, that bill was reintroduced, and it has local support. State Senator Vince Polistina is one of the co-sponsors of that bill. I fully expect that to be one of the first pieces of action that the state legislature takes up in this legislative session. And I wouldn’t be surprised if, you know, we’re talking weeks if not months, smoking in Atlantic City casinos is just gonna be done. Completely gone.”

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR NONSMOKERS' RIGHTS 
Americans for Nonsmoker’s Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for 45 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit https://no-smoke.org and https://smokefreecasinos.org.

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