New Jersey state Senator Vince Polistina, who represents Atlantic City, said last week he will introduce a bill in the 2024 legislative session that will provide a compromise to the smoking ban that recently died in committee.
Polistina failed to vote for a complete smoking ban after pressure from the industry. He had previously supported the full ban, even attending rallies held by the employee group Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE).
However, on the day a few weeks ago that the Senate’s Health Committee was to vote to send a bill to the floor that would have eliminated the casino loophole to the 2006 New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, he withdrew his support, instead embracing an industry proposal to create “Philip Morris smoking rooms” while banning smoking on the floor.
“It is disappointing that after two years of advocating and building support with our colleagues, we still do not have the necessary support in the Legislature to get a full smoking ban passed,” said Polistina, according to The Press of Atlantic City.
“I agree with others that the exemption probably shouldn’t have been part of the original law. The casinos believe that they can meet our goal of eliminating employee and patron exposure to secondhand smoke with a structured plan and additional capital investment into their properties over the next couple of years. Given that their concerns about potential job loss and closures have resonated with some lawmakers, this is the direction I believe we need to go so that we don’t lose momentum on this issue.”
Polistina said last week that the new bill, in addition to the rooms, would eliminate smoking at table games and reduce smoking at slots in a gradual, phased manner.
Anti-smoking advocates were quick to condemn Polistina and assail what they called an “absurd” compromise in the smoking rooms—originally seen in airports but eventually eliminated.
Last week, members of the United Auto Workers union, which represents Atlantic City table-game dealers, took their protest one step further, disrupting an Assembly committee meeting by lighting cigarettes in the hearing room and blowing smoke toward the lawmakers.
“We’re not allowed to smoke in your workplace, but you’re allowed to smoke in ours,” Daniel Vicente, a regional director of the union, told lawmakers in the now-smoky room.
The dealers were escorted out of the chamber, and no charges were filed related to the disruption.
“They say it’s OK for secondhand smoke to be blown in our faces all day, every day,” Vicente later told The Press. “We wanted to know if it’s OK if we did that in their workplace. They said it was inappropriate and not allowed here.”
