A group of Atlantic City casino dealers who are fighting to ban indoor smoking in the city’s casinos are calling on state Assemblyman Bill Moen, who chairs the Assembly Tourism, Gaming and Arts Committee, to hold a vote at the panel’s May meeting to clear his own legislation to end the casino exemption to New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act that allows smoking inside the city’s casinos.
Moen is the lead sponsor of A2143, which would ban smoking in casinos, as well as chairman of the committee, a role which allows him to schedule a vote on the bill.
“It’s time to finally put this bill forward,” said Nicole Vitola, Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) co-founder and longtime Atlantic City casino table games dealer. “As the lead sponsor of this bill in the Assembly, Chair Moen must not wait any longer. It’s been nearly 20 years of living with a compromise when every other worker was and continues to be protected. We call on Chair Moen to announce that his Committee will vote on A2143 at the next possible opportunity, which is in May.
“Every day that we don’t see progress in the state house is another day that casino workers like us are exposed to even more dangers of secondhand smoke. There’s no room for discredited claims or false compromises in the legislature—we have been forced to fight for our lives on all fronts. We’re tired of waiting and our members continue to get sick. We can no longer choose between our health and a paycheck.”
At the end of January, the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee passed identical legislation, S1493. There is an alternative bill that maintains indoor smoking in casinos.
CEASE and the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents Atlantic City casino dealers, filed a lawsuit in Trenton against the State of New Jersey over the casino exemption in the Smoke-Free Air Act.
Meanwhile, members of the other main Atlantic City casino union, Local 54 of UNITE HERE, are protesting the union leaders’ endorsement of the alternate plan to allow smoking inside casinos to continue.
