Atlantic City Goes Smokeless on Sunday, Almost Completely

The new law that changes Atlantic City casinos from being seventy-five percent smoker friendly, to seventy-five percent non-smoker friendly, goes into effect this Sunday.

The new law goes into effect after Atlantic City revenue reports earlier this week revealed slightly higher earnings than they did a year earlier. The higher revenue reports were a positive sign for casino operators who were worried that the newly approved slot parlors in Pennsylvania and New York would take away visitors from their businesses. Their concerns proved not to be needed and they survived the new competition, but now they face another obstacle that may be difficult to overcome.

Atlantic City is the last place in New Jersey where there is an exception to the law that bans smoking in public buildings. Although operators were quite pleased with the exception, workers at Atlantic City casinos complained about the excessive smoke they had to put up with on a daily basis. Officials thus changed the exception, which said there must be at least 25% of the gaming area floor that was completely smoke free, to the exact opposite, which said there can only be 25% of the gaming floor where smoking is allowed.

We reported earlier in the week that the exception was lifted and that there would be a 100% ban on smoking in the boardwalk city casinos. However, an overwhelming amount of contacts relayed the message that there still would be some smoking allowed.

Many emails informed us that smokers would still be allowed to enjoy a few drags while playing their favorite games, they would just have less area of the casino to find those games.

April 14, 2007
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!