Will smoking be banned in Atlantic City casinos? Lawmakers to consider bill next week

State lawmakers are inching closer to potentially imposing a complete smoking ban in Atlantic City casinos with an important hearing set next week.

The bill – S264 – would no longer allow an exemption for designated casino smoking areas in the “New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act,” a landmark 2006 law that prohibited indoor smoking in almost all indoor public places.

The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday in Trenton on the measure that has received considerable bipartisan support. The Senate bill has 26 sponsors while the Assembly version has 57.

Supporters say it would protect casino workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Opponents have often said the ban would hurt casino revenues, the economic engine of the Atlantic City region.

The bill and its many earlier versions have stalled in Trenton over the years. But following November’s elections, the legislature has entered its lame-duck session where bills are often advanced at a rapid-fire pace with the two-year session expiring in January. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin seemed to throw support behind the bill at a news conference this month where he said his members would “take a look and see what we can get done,” according to press reports.

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The bill would also ban smoking indoors at simulcast facilities. The Meadowlands Racing complex in East Rutherford only allows smoking at designated areas outdoors.

Smoking is permitted on about 20% of a casino floor in Atlantic City. A temporary ban had been implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but smoking returned when Gov. Phil Murphy lifted the temporary ban.

At an Assembly hearing in March, supporters and opponents came out to testify on the bill.

Dozens of members of CEASE, Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, attended the hearing with members saying they shouldn’t be subject to secondhand smoke. Workers are at “great risk to the health hazards caused by secondhand smoke, including heart disease, lung cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory illnesses,” according to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Members of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey and the Unite Here Local 54 hospitality workers’ union said a ban may prompt some gamblers to go to other casinos in nearby states that allow smoking.

Public places in NJ that still allow smoking

If the ban on casino smoking were to pass, New Jerseyans would be able to light up in only a few public places including:

• Cigar lounge or tobacco shop
• A golf course
• Designated areas on beaches
• Research laboratories studying the effects of smoking