The New Jersey legislature in Trenton has reached a milestone. The majority of the members in the Assembly and Senate health committees co-sponsored legislation to eliminate the casino smoking loophole.
Assemblyman Daniel Benson and Assemblywoman Lisa Swain are signing onto the bill, according to a news release from Americans for Nonsmokers Rights. The nonprofit is working with other groups to pass the law and eliminate indoor smoking in casinos, according to the Press of Atlantic City.
“We have a responsibility to protect workers from dangerous secondhand smoke everywhere, not just in some workplaces,” Benson said.
“No worker should have to breathe secondhand smoke while on the job, period,” Swain said.
A total of 39 legislators are co-sponsoring the legislation. Of 40 New Jersey senators, 15 are co-sponsors of S264. Of 80 members of the Assembly, 24 are co-sponsors of A2151.
“Legislation to protect casino workers from secondhand smoke has never had this much support in Trenton,” said Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. “Our growing, bipartisan coalition knows that it is unacceptable to continue the outdated business practice of knowingly subjecting workers to dangerous secondhand smoke.”
Joe Lupo, president of the casino association and of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, has said the resort “faces some very dire issues,” including lower levels of visitors in 2021 than 2019.
He has said now is not the time to enact a smoking ban, and that doing so “could cause a devastating effect to the community and state.”
