Smoking to be completely banned in AC

[dendrite]

News just out on the philly.com website saying that later today the Atlantic City Council will be introducing a full smoking ban on the casino floors

The proposal indicates that the only smoking allowed will now be special smoking lounges where there will be no games or machines

A.C. Council to take up full smoking ban in casinos

By Suzette Parmley
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

ATLANTIC CITY - The nine-member Atlantic City Council is expected to take up a controversial measure later today that will prohibit smoking in all the casino floors here for the first time in the seaside resort's 30-year history of gambling.
Four council members are co-sponsors of the measure, and only one more member is needed for passage.

The call for a full smoking ban arrives on the eve of the first anniversary of the partial smoking ban that took effect April 15, 2007. That confined smoking to 25 percent of the casino floors here, also known as the "75-25 rule."

The one-year old law required the 11 casinos to build enclosed smoking structures within their confines. To date, none of the Atlantic City casinos has built them, according to the state Department of Commmunity Affairs, the agency in Trenton in charge of approving such plans.

Several casino operators have said they were waiting to see if a full ban on smoking eventually would be taken up by City Council before committing millions of dollars to building the enclosures.

A compromise was reached last week between Atlantic City casino officials and some council members. The amendment to the proposed measure would allow casinos to have smoking within enclosed lounges that offered no gaming and were unattended by employees of the casinos. The lounges would resemble those found in airports.

A total ban on smoking would apply to casinos that do not build enclosures.

Some casino worker groups have aligned with non-profit health organizations over the past year to counter what they described as enormous pressure by the casino industry to defeat last year's push for a full smoking ban.

The full nine-member council will vote on the measure at its 5 p.m. meeting today.

"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 Nate Chait, 52, a long-time casino employee who works as a table games supervisor for one of the city's biggest casinos. "The smoke is more concentrated in a smoking pit.

"People would call in sick rather than work in those areas and risk getting sick," he said. "It creates all sorts of scheduling problems. Hopefully, this will pass, and we will go from there."

But casino operators have argued many of their patrons smoke and that a full ban on smoking would lead to a further erosion of gaming revenue and profit.

Total revenue year-to-date ended February 29 was down 4.4 percent from the previous year for Atlantic City's casinos.

Wall Street analysts have cited Pennsylvania slots parlors as the main reason for the decline and, to some extent, the year-old partial smoking ban.

Andrew Zarnett, a gambling industry analyst with Deutsche Bank AG in New York, wrote in a note to investors earlier this month that a full smoking ban "would have a detrimental effect on Atlantic City revenues as visitations decline in the short term."

Zarnett blamed a recently enacted full smoking ban in Illinois and a weak national economy for a 20 percent drop in revenue last month for Illinois casinos versus a year ago. The statewide smoking ban in Illinois took effect Jan. 1, 2008.

[winbig]

Are they nuts? If they think business is dropping now, just wait and see what happens IF this bill passes. IMO it has a snowball's chance in hell.

All I have to say is that I go to AC a few times a month and would rather stay at home and gamble online if they ban smoking in AC. ...and that's saying quite a bit. The main reason I go there in the first place is so I can get paid right away, NOT wait a month for a check.

Total revenue year-to-date ended February 29 was down 4.4 percent from the previous year for Atlantic City's casinos.

IF this bill ever passes, remove the decimal point from the above figure and it'll be correct for 2008 earnings.

[babs7262]

I was just there and that is the subject at hand! They are completely insane to think that people are going to drive 2 hours NOT to smoke when they can stay in PA, gamble and smoke

Infact, The reason Rich and I get room service alot is because I want a cigarette after my meal and Rich eats slower than me. Ill guess what Ill do is take the free room for a change of pace, gamble and eat in my room and go downstairs when I wanna shop LMAO!!! Frikin Morons

I need to say one thing though, seriously.

It is part our (smokers) fault too. People are not folllowing the rules and lighting up whether its a smoking area or not. I really think if ppl stuck to the rule this wouldnt of happened. The casinos dont care. I was playing wheel of fortune last trip at 6am and it was dead at the time. I was on the top floor and smoking is bottom floor. I lit up anyway and a handful (atleast) of employees walked right passed me without saying a word

I mean, clearly it was my fault because if I were a slot attendant and saw someone smoking that could be a potential winner and tip me, Hell, I wouldnt tell them to put it out either! We need to take some of the responsiblility here but it still sucks and they are going to lose even more ppl

Try that in Vegas , HA ! never happening

[just play]

I was on the top floor and smoking is bottom floor.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the smoking section on the top floor since smoke rises?

[winbig]

I don't have the direct link, but I was browsing dealer jobs at various casinos....in the job descriptions it clearly stated that you must work around cigarette smoke....so if you don't want the job, then tough cookies.


The way I see it is this:

If a dealer doesn't want to work around smokers, then the CASINO should be required to only place them in a non-smoking pit. Seeing as how this takes up 75% of the casino, it shouldn't be a problem. There's no reason at all to ban smoking altogether.

[dendrite]

I think it is just a matter of time before Vegas introduces this type of law.

Maybe it's five years away, but I think it will happen

The fact is, even if they advertise jobs descriptions asking that applicants be comfortable with working in smoke, the lawyers can soon translate this into 'must be comfortable with getting throat cancer / lung cancer' etc, which is obviously unacceptable as a job description

What interests me is how the casinos are going to react to these changes to keep players and to attract a new type of player to replace those they are going to lose.

My guess is that we will see even more on the entertainment side of things, more games to attract the younger generation and more in the way of leisure activities, fine dining etc. Basically, I think they are going to be trying to attract a different type of crowd.

I agree, this news is bad for casinos, but it does look to be the way things are heading all over the country. I just hope we see casinos progress and attract people in different ways, rather than close down.

Try that in Vegas , HA ! never happening

[winbig]

In Vegas' case, the almighty dollar will prevail once again. Vegas would stand to lose millions in tax dollars if this was the case. Stopping people from smoking in casinos would be the beginning of the end of Vegas.

[anniemac]

Well, Louisiana got their cake and ate it too. Can't smoke in any eating establishment unless they are basically a bar serving food. Can't smoke in any public place, malls etc. Can't smoke anywhere in a casino except IN THE CASINO. Tell me they didn't think this one out. That way they appeased all.

Now on the other hand, smokers could be a little more polite. I am a reformed smoker (would smoke one a mile long if I could though) and it would be nice is when I sit down by someone that is smoking or vice versa, the smoker wouldn't blow smoke in my face. When I used to smoke, I would ask someone when I sat down if they minded or if someone sat down by me I would try to keep the smoke from going right up their nose. Just a little common courtesy. I have noticed though in most of the casinos in Shreveport that the ventilation systems is much better so it's not as smokey as they once were.

[dendrite]

You are right, the mighty dollar will prevail. But will it prevail in favor of smoking or in favor of non-smoking?

On the one hand, we have lost revenue due to players not liking bans put in place, but on the other hand we have the lawsuits that could explode as workers begin to realize that ill health has been caused by the smoke.

It seems that the much publicized lawsuit by the dealer, Kam Wong in A.C. had a real say in the A.C ruling to introduce a ban.

Casino smoke ruling / Just pass the ban
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008

Well, this always seemed inevitable to us.
Why it hasn't seemed inevitable to the casino industry - and why the industry hasn't been more afraid of cases like this - is well ... hazy.
A state workers' compensation judge has ruled that a casino dealer's 10 years of secondhand-smoke exposure materially contributed to her lung cancer. The dealer, Kam Wong, never smoked herself, nor did anyone in her household smoke. The insurance company for the former Claridge Casino Hotel is now responsible for any future medical treatment related to Wong's work in the casino.
And this won't be the last such case.
Yes, casino revenue in Atlantic City is down, and many in the industry blame the city's partial smoking ban, which restricts smoking to 25 percent of the casino floor. The state's public-smoking ban, which exempted casino floors, prohibits smoking in casino hotels' other public areas. But at least one poll has concluded that more New Jersey residents would patronize casinos if they went completely smoke-free.

Besides, the debate is, in essence, over.
Revel Entertainment Group's Atlantic City casino will be completely smoke-free when it opens. Last year, James Perry, then head of Trump Entertainment Resorts, said: "Generally speaking, we believe over the next three-year period, smoking will be banned in almost all casinos throughout the United States or certainly on the Eastern Seaboard. Long-term, we have to be prepared to operate these casinos in a smoke-free environment."
And now, the court cases have come rolling in. The science about the dangers of secondhand smoke has been clear for sometime; more court cases will soon follow - and, almost certainly, in lawsuits posing far more liability for the industry than this one workers' compensation case.
Atlantic City's partial ban is not really being enforced anyway. The casinos' plans for dividing up their casino floors into smoking/no-smoking areas or building nongaming smoking rooms will be neither cheap to build nor particularly effective.
It's over. A bill in the state Senate to ban smoking on casino floors - just as it is banned in virtually every other workplace in the state - has been reintroduced. It was approved in the Senate last year but languished in the Assembly. It's time for the casinos to drop their opposition and for state lawmakers to end the casino smoking exemption.
That would make Atlantic City's partial ban moot. The casinos could drop plans for the expensive retrofitting of their casino floors. And the industry won't look quite so culpable the next time a nonsmoking casino dealer with lung cancer goes before a judge or jury seeking damages.

[winbig]

Now on the other hand, smokers could be a little more polite. I am a reformed smoker (would smoke one a mile long if I could though) and it would be nice is when I sit down by someone that is smoking or vice versa, the smoker wouldn't blow smoke in my face.

I couldn't agree more.

If Casinos wanted to ban anything, it should be putting a ban on CIGARS at all table games. On a trip recently I was at the Taj and sat down at a BJ table next to a guy that was smoking a nasty ass smelling cigar. It smelled so bad I couldn't even stand to be near the table, as it was making me nauseous; which says a lot, seeing as how I'm a smoker. Needless to say I left rather quickly. Don't get me wrong, there's some cigars that don't reek, but most do.