At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, all Michigan casinos were forced to ban indoor smoking. Those bans largely stayed in place until about six months ago—since then, numerous properties have either reintroduced smoking or provided smokers with designated areas on the casino floor, which has proved controversial among patrons who preferred the smoke break.
Gun Lake Casino in Wayland was the most recent casino to carve out a smoking space, joining Hollywood Casino at Greektown, Little River Casino and MGM Grand Detroit.
This comes at a time when New Jersey and Rhode Island’s casino workers, or at least a vociferous group, are fighting to ensure that smoking is banned from indoor areas. The pandemic gave this movement a strong momentum, with a solid argument against having smokers light up in closed spaces.
Opponents of smoking point to health concerns for workers, saying any smoking indoors is harmful to those who spend several hours on the casino floor.
Proponents argue that smoking bans are bad for business and pointed to the recent compromise as an effective solution.
That position hasn’t sat well with casino workers in Atlantic City, as well as Pennsylvania and Rhode Island casinos. They have mobilized to ban smoking where they work and are starting to see results from their lobbying efforts.
In Atlantic City, a group called Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) has actually managed to persuade New Jersey lawmakers to propose legislation banning smoking in Atlantic City’s nine casinos.
State Sen. Joe Vitale, who is chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services & Senior Citizens Committee, announced the legislature will hold a public hearing on February 13 regarding S-264. That bill, if approved, would ban smoking of all types in casinos.
“This hearing will give those engaged in the issue and impacted by the legislation the opportunity to express their views and share relevant information on the proposed casino smoking ban,” Vitale, a Middlesex Democrat, said in a press release announcing the hearing. “We welcome a thorough discussion with the committee on how this bill will affect casino employees, customers, and the gaming industry. We expect a productive and informative hearing on an issue of importance.”
Members of CEASE said in a statement that this was a longtime coming.
“For the first time in nearly 17 years, this bill will finally have a hearing,” read the statement. “This is a massive step forward for protecting our health and treating us like every other worker in New Jersey. No other group of workers in our state must deal with secondhand smoke like we do — two feet in front of our faces, without even the ability to turn our heads because we’re watching over the chips on the table. We are grateful to Senator Vitale for scheduling this hearing and championing our cause to close the casino smoking loophole.”
In Pennsylvania, State Rep. Dan Frankel is pushing similar legislation to try and protect the health of casino workers.
“What this is about is public health,” Frankel said. “We know that smoking kills people 22,000 people in Pa. every year. Many of those people are affected by secondhand smoke.”
