Ordinance 86 as amended on January 24, 2007

On January 24, 2007, the Atlantic City Council introduced an amended version of the ordinance, dropping the requirement that the casinos be smokefree. The ordinance was passed February 7 and is effective April 15, 2007. To see the ordinance, click here

The amended ordinance 86 is totally unacceptable for these reasons:

• All it really requires is that the casinos designate 75% of the gaming areas as nonsmoking, with no physical barriers. Smoking-permitted areas could be scattered throughout the nonsmoking section. There is a well-documented history of poor compliance with the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, which requires the casinos to make non-gaming areas nonsmoking; the proposed 75-25 split may lead to 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; the casinos could drag that process out indefinitely.
• 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).
• Any employee is at risk to be assigned to these smoking sections on any shift, even on every shift.
• This 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.

The Atlantic City Council handled this process poorly.

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 three public statements in that forum. On the first three votes for the measures, the Council voted unanimously for smokefree casinos.
Then 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 2 for the amended ordinance, publicly stating this was, in part, to avoid a lawsuit from the casinos. Final vote was February 7; the ordinance passed 6-3; it’s effective April 15, 2007.

To see the amended ordinance, click here.