Posted on: September 4, 2024, 01:54h.
Last updated on: September 4, 2024, 02:15h.
Anti-smoking advocates in New Jersey’s Atlantic City are utilizing their children in campaign messaging in hopes of rallying up support in Trenton for bipartisan legislation to force casinos to go smoke-free.
CEASE, or Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, debuted two 30-second videos on YouTube Wednesday featuring children of casino workers who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. In the first video, Ayana, the granddaughter of CEASE co-founder Lamont White, a table game dealer at the Borgata, discussed the challenges of his job.
When he comes over after work, if we try to hug him he won’t let us because he knows he smells like smoke,” Ayana says. “He doesn’t want us to inhale that. If they want to smoke, they should take it outside.”
In another “Kids of CEASE” video, Nathan, whose parents both work in Atlantic City casinos, said he worries about his mom and dad being exposed daily to secondhand smoke.
I definitely worry for my mom and dad, letting people just smoke in their face. It’s not fair… they are risking their lives for our lives.”
Nathan reveals that his mother is currently pregnant but continues to work to support the family.
Unions at Odds
CEASE told Casino.org that the anti-smoking videos will air in key legislative districts across New Jersey, including in Assemblyman Bill Moen’s (D) District 5. The deputy majority leader is a primary sponsor of Assembly Bill 2143, legislation that would extinguish the indoor smoking loophole given to casino floors under the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act.
Despite co-authoring AB 2143, Moen has stalled the bill in the Assembly Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts Committee that he chairs. The bill already has enough Assembly support to clear the chamber by way of more than 40 co-sponsors in the 80-person lower house.
The United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents table game dealers at Bally’s, Caesars, and Tropicana, is supportive of prohibiting indoor casino smoking. But Unite Here Local 54, which represents thousands of Atlantic City casino workers in nongaming functions, does not. Unite Here believes a smoking ban could result in at least one, possibly two, casinos closing which would devastate the local economy.
Videos Follow Court Ruling
The UAW helped CEASE fund a lawsuit challenging the 2006 indoor smoking carveout for casinos and parimutuel facilities in New Jersey. The litigation claimed that casino workers’ rights to personal health safety are being violated.
Last week, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Patrick Bartels disagreed. He said the state legislature didn’t violate the state’s founding framework when it allowed casinos to designate up to 25% of their gaming space for tobacco use.
Bartels reasoned that the Smoke-Free Air Act “does not hinder or affect a person’s ability to seek work in a smoke-free environment” nor does the law restrict “casino workers’ right to pursue safety under the New Jersey Constitution.” CEASE is expected to appeal the ruling to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
