#trending | Staff await as NJ lawmakers debate casino smoking ban – ABC News: US
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Casino employees in Atlantic Metropolis are eagerly awaiting Monday’s listening to on a invoice proposing to finish smoking in casinos. The invoice would shut a loophole in the 2006 indoor smoking regulation exempting casinos from the ban. Opponents of the invoice argue it’s going to value jobs and income, however analysis from Las Vegas exhibits non-smoking casinos outperforming these the place smoking is allowed. Support for the ban is widespread amongst New Jersey lawmakers, with a bipartisan majority in each chambers. Gov. Murphy promised to signal the invoice if handed.
TRENTON, N.J. — It is typically stated that individuals who actually need one thing are breathlessly anticipating it. However for a big group of Atlantic Metropolis casino employees who’ve been ready 17 years for state lawmakers to contemplate ending smoking in casinos, that is nearly actually true.Sellers, cocktail servers and other casino employees — a few of them with respiratory illnesses and other well being issues they think are associated to secondhand smoke from casino patrons — are eagerly awaiting Monday’s listening to earlier than a New Jersey Senate committee on laws that will prohibit smoking in Atlantic Metropolis’s 9 casinos.The invoice would shut a loophole in the state’s 2006 indoor smoking regulation written particularly to exempt casinos from bans on smoking indoors. Presently, smoking is permitted on 25% of a casino flooring in Atlantic Metropolis.Whether or not to ban smoking is one of the crucial controversial points not solely in Atlantic Metropolis casinos, however in other states the place employees have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They’re waging related campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia.The Casino Affiliation of New Jersey, the commerce group for Atlantic Metropolis’s casinos, has lengthy opposed a smoking ban, predicting it might value the industry jobs and income. However smoking opponents dispute these assertions, citing analysis from Las Vegas-primarily based C3 Gaming that confirmed non-smoking casinos in a number of markets are actually outperforming these the place smoking is permitted.Mark Giannantonio, president of Resorts Casino and head of the commerce group, didn’t reply to a request for remark earlier than Monday’s listening to.The casinos additionally word they’ve spent hundreds of thousands on air flow and other air purification systems. Staff and well being industry teams contend there is not any stage of secondhand smoke thought-about safe for people.Support for a smoking ban is widespread amongst New Jersey lawmakers: An identical smoking ban payments are sponsored or co-sponsored by 51 Meeting members and 23 state Senators, representing a bipartisan majority in each chambers.The payments have repeatedly been launched in the Legislature, solely to take a seat untouched for a number of years not solely with no vote, however with out so much as a dialogue.That dialogue is set to occur Monday afternoon, though a vote is not going to be taken that day.New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has promised to signal the invoice if it is handed by the Legislature.___Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC.
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Dave Petchy