Atlantic City casino workers plan ad blitz to ban smoking after court rejects ban
A group of Atlantic City casino workers seeking to ban smoking in the gambling halls will launch an advertising campaign featuring their children
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A group of Atlantic City casino workers seeking to ban smoking in the gambling halls will launch an advertising campaign featuring their children in response to a judge's rejection of a lawsuit that would have ended smoking in the nine casinos.
The workers, calling themselves Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, said Wednesday the digital ads will target the districts of state lawmakers who have the power to advance pending legislation that would ban smoking in the casinos.
And a labor union that brought the unsuccessful lawsuit said it would withdraw from the state AFL-CIO over the issue, saying the parent labor group has not supported the health and safety of workers.
On Friday, a state judge rejected the lawsuit, ruling the workers' claim that New Jersey's Constitution guarantees them a right to safety “is not well-settled law” and that they were unlikely to prevail with such a claim.
The ruling relieved the casinos, which continue to struggle in the aftermath of the COVID19 pandemic, with most of them winning less money from in-person gamblers than they did before the virus outbreak in 2020.
But it dismayed workers including dealers, who say they have to endure eight-hour shifts of people blowing smoke in their faces or just breathing cigarette smoke in the air.
“I dealt through two pregnancies,” said Nicole Vitola, a Borgata dealer and co-founder of the anti-smoking group. “It was grueling. We're human beings. We have an aging workforce.”
Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City casinos, but in
Read more on abcnews.go.com
