Atlantic City Will Not Quit Until Casino Smoking Ban Occurs

Last year, a stepping stone was made in an effort to have no smoking at Atlantic City casinos. The ban from last year bans smoking on seventy five percent of the casino floor.

The smoking ban was not enough, according to several members of the Council. They will now try to rid the casino floor of smoking altogether.

With four members of the Council already in favor of the motion, only one more member will have to approve for the measure to be passed. The law that was passed last year is not working.

It called for the eleven casinos in Atlantic City to build enclosed smoking areas. To date, not one casino has followed those instructions.

Now, they may not have to build the structures. Since they were slow to respond to what they were supposed to do to comply, the Council is now looking to put a smoking ban on the entire casino floor.

Casino operators are claiming that the smoking ban would hurt their business since most of their customers smoke. One business that would not be hurt by the ban, would be hospitals.

Although the casino operators only care about their profits, and not about people's health, it would make perfect sense that they would oppose the ban. To most people, though, their health is more important than casino operators profits.

"The state is continuing to discriminate against us, and we are depending on the City Council to live up to its integrity and obligation of protecting the health, welfare, and safety of its citizens," said a table games supervisor at a big casino in AC, Nate Chait.

April 10, 2008
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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