Atlantic City Smokefree Casinos Ordinance - History

For more information on smokefree casinos in general, the need to protect employees and patrons, and comprehensive supporting empirical data, go to the home page of this site (www.njgasp.org) and click on "gambling" or the image of the casino dealer.

For a list of smokefree gaming jurisdictions in North America, click here. For a list of smokefree gaming jurisdictions across the globe, click here.

On April 30, 2008, Atlantic City Mayor Evans signs Ordinance #27, which requires 100% smoke-free casino gaming floors where employees work. To view the final ordinance, click here. Within the hour, the media announced a press release from Mr. Larry Mullin, the President of the Borgata, announed that the Borgata will become the first Atlantic City casino to go 100% smokefree in the fall, and will construct outdoor smoking areas for its smoking patrons. To view the Borgata press release, click here. To view the article from the Press of Atlantic City, click here.

April 30, 2008 New Jersey GASP press release, to view click here.

April 24, 2008: Atlantic City ordinance for smoke-free casino gaming floors passed by City Council. Click on a newspaper to view the related story: New York Times, Star Ledger, Philadelphia Inquirer, Press of Atlantic City, Las Vegas Sun.

New Jersey GASP Press release, April 23, 2008: Atlantic City to require 100% smoke-free casino gaming floors where employees work, to view click here.

On April 23, 2008, Atlantic City Council, on second reading, voted unanimously, 9-0, in favor of Ordinance #27, which amends Ordinance #86. To see Ordinance #86, click here. Ordinance #27 requires that on October 15, 2008, all casino gaming floors be smokefree where employees work. Casinos may construct nongaming smoking lounges, that are non-staffed, and separately enclosed and ventilated, on up to 25% of the gaming floor. Mayor Evans has 20 days from the date of the vote of the second reading of Ordinance #27 to sign the ordinance. Councilmen Bruce Ward, Gene Robinson, George Tibbitt, and Stephen L. Moore are the prime sponsors of Ordinance #27.

The first reading of Ordinance #27, introduced as Ordinance #5-A took place on April 9, 2008, and the City Council voted unanimously 9-0 in favor. The original proposed 5-A provided a 90-day effective date, but October 15, 2008 became the effective date agreed upon by City Council at the Ordinance's first reading, on April 9, 2008. On March 26, both Councilmen Ward and Tibitt expected to introduce a similar proposed amendment at that council meeting, but the proposed amendment was tabled until the April 9 hearing.

The original Ordinance #86, that took effect on April 15, 2007, required that the casinos submit applications to the NJ Department of Community Affairs by September 15, 2007, if casinos wanted to build smoking rooms on up to 25% of the gaming floor.

The original Ordinance #86 took effect on April 15, 2007, and allows smoking on up to 25% of the gaming floor (it passed 6-3 on February 7, 2007). Since Ordinance #86 continued to expose workers and patrons to secondhand smoke on the gaming floors, on June 19, 2007, the Atlantic City City Council unanimously enacted a resolution that "recommends and urges the NJ State Legislature to become more aggressively involved with amending the New Jersey Smoke Fee Air Act, N.J.S.A. 26:3D-55, to include language which prohibits smoking 100% in all Atlantic City Casinos." To view resolution, click here.

For information on problems with the original Ordinance #86 that took effect on April 15, 2007, click here.

Here's more info on the original Ordinance #86 that passed on April 15, 2007, and the process:

Atlantic City original Ordinance #86, that passed on April 15, 2007, did not protect employees and patrons. Here's why:

• The casinos can designate up to 25% of the gaming areas as smoking, with no physical barriers. Smoking-permitted areas are scattered throughout the nonsmoking sections. Air testing in casinos in New York and Ontario that have (had) designated sections shows that smoke permeates the nonsmoking areas. To see the summary of the scientific study, click here.
  
  
• The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act (SFAA) already requires the casinos to make non-gaming areas nonsmoking, but there is a well-documented history of poor compliance with the SFAA by the casinos (click here for a report). Reports by NJGASP testers show that the 75-25 split results in similar noncompliance.
  
  
• The ordinance says casinos must ultimately enclose smoking sections with walls and install separate ventilation for the smoking areas, but that requirement has no deadline. Since the enactment date of April 15, 2007, not one casino has begun to build a separately enclosed and ventilated smoking room.
  
  
• If the separate smoking sections are created, they may be even more polluted than the current gaming areas (because pollution is a function of smoking density and because no ventilation can eliminate the tobacco smoke pollution hazard). For the results of air testing in casinos in Rhode Island that have walled and separately-ventilated sections, click here.
  
  
• Employees are at risk to be assigned to these smoking sections on any shift, even on every shift. While the ordinance limits the smoking-permitted areas to no more than 25% of the floor area, casinos may assign more than 25% of employees to work in these areas; casinos may place table games, that require more employees, in the smoking area and may fill the nonsmoking areas with slot machines. Furthermore, people who smoke might avoid gaming in the extra-polluted smoking section, but then use the smoking section just to smoke, thereby increasing the pollution.
  
  
• The ordinance creates many personnel problems for employees and casinos. It may pit employee against employee in their efforts to avoid working in the smoking sections. Casinos may offer employees incentives to work in these smoking sections, and employees who accept those incentives may be those who are least informed about secondhand smoke hazards or most desperate to keep their jobs. It is not clear what actions casinos may take against employees who refuse to work in the smoking areas.

There were seven public hearings by the Council at which there were numerous and passionate requests from casino workers for smokefree casinos, backed by numerous and authoritative presentations of supporting information from public health professionals. Every hearing drew several hundred people, filling the Council chamber. There were far fewer public statements of opposition to smokefree casinos and the casinos made only a few public statements in that forum. On the first three votes for the measures, the Council voted unanimously for smokefree casinos. However, the measure was tabled on December 29, 2007 for fact-finding hearings, which took place in January.

On Monday, January 22, two days before the final passage was expected, it was reported in the news media that the Council had met with the casinos privately and that the 75-25 measure would be introduced and was expected to pass. No casino workers or public health professionals were informed of these meetings or allowed to participate.

On Wednesday, January 24, at the Atlantic City Council meeting, over the protests of the workers and advocates, many of whom said they'd rather have no ordinance than the amended ordinance 86, the Council voted 6 to 3for the amended ordinance, publicly stating this was, in part, to avoid a lawsuit from the casinos. Final vote was February 7. The mayor signed the ordinance, and the ordinance took effect on April 15, 2007.