Casino Update
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Attempt at casino smoke ban gets local
November 3, 2006
ELAINE ROSE
ATLANTIC CITY — The clinking champagne glasses and tooting noisemakers that ring in 2007 could be the signal to squash out cigarettes in the resort’s casinos, two Atlantic City city councilmen said Thursday.
Rather than wait for the state Legislature to ban smoking in the gaming halls, Councilmen Eugene Robinson and G. Bruce Ward said they plan to introduce an ordinance to ban smoking in all Atlantic City workplaces, including casinos, at the Nov. 15 meeting. They hope the measure will take effect Jan. 1.
A statewide ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces went into effect April 15, but exempts gaming areas of casinos. Assemblyman Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, has introduced a measure to include the gaming halls in the ban, but it has been on hold while the Legislature sorts out state budget woes.
“We feel this exemption is discriminating against our work force and our neighbors, and we want to close this loophole with an ordinance,” Ward, a former health-care attorney recently appointed to City Council, said Thursday at a news conference held on the Boardwalk at Kennedy Plaza. “We wouldn’t have an invitation to allow asbestos in one location and forbidden in the rest of the state.”
Ward said the ordinance would be “a Christmas present for the 40,000 people who work in Atlantic City.”
A.C. Councilmen Pushing For Casino Smoking Ban
Nov 2, 2006
While the house may always win when it comes to gambling in Atlantic City, two city councilmen are trying to fight the smoking ban exemption that allows smoking in casinos.
Councilmen Eugene Robinson and G. Bruce Ward want the Clean Indoor Air Act to be extended to protect approximately 40,000 casino employees from second hand smoke.
The proposed ordinance would ban smoking in all workplaces, including casinos. The current smoking ban went into effect on April 15, prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants, but did not extend to casino floors.
The councilmen hope the new ordinance will pass unanimously so it can go into effect by January 1, 2007.
“Evidence from the surgeon general of the United States indicates that there is no acceptable level of second hand smoke. We feel that this exception is discriminatory against our workforce, our neighbors and we want to close this loophole,” said Councilman G. Bruce Ward.
The councilmen argue the casinos will not see any financial repercussions because of the ordinance, sighting no bars or restaurants have closed due to the smoking ban.
Subject: Maintain Smoking Areas
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:14:24 -0500
From: Edward J Moore
To: Marina.Hosts@Marina.Trump.Com
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:14:24 -0500
From: Edward J Moore
To: Marina.Hosts@Marina.Trump.Com
Dear Trump Marina,
So sorry to hear Atlantic City Council is attempting to impose a ban on smoking areas in the casinos.
As we know many gamblers are also smokers, including I. Much of my entertaining dollar is spent at your great casino, and I enjoy playing in a smoker friendly atmosphere.
Hopefully they can be persuaded somehow, to realize we are all adults and should have choices on where we wish to patronize.
Business’s are privately owned, not public areas! Without smoking areas, treks to Vegas seem the most obvious option.
I thank you for allowing my comment and to enjoy your casino.
Ed Moore
So sorry to hear Atlantic City Council is attempting to impose a ban on smoking areas in the casinos.
As we know many gamblers are also smokers, including I. Much of my entertaining dollar is spent at your great casino, and I enjoy playing in a smoker friendly atmosphere.
Hopefully they can be persuaded somehow, to realize we are all adults and should have choices on where we wish to patronize.
Business’s are privately owned, not public areas! Without smoking areas, treks to Vegas seem the most obvious option.
I thank you for allowing my comment and to enjoy your casino.
Ed Moore
Budget Crisis in N.J. Dims Gamblers’ Hopes
Jul 6 , 2006
TOM HESTER JR.
TOM HESTER JR.
TRENTON, N.J. — As politicians in the state capital haggled over how to fill a $4.5 billion budget deficit, New Jersey’s fiscal crisis was being felt across the state – casinos were closed, state offices were shuttered and many state employees stayed home.
About 45,000 state workers and 36,000 casino workers are out of work. Unions representing both groups planned rallies in Trenton on Thursday to demand action to end the stalemate.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, scheduled his third address in as many days to try to quell dissent from lawmakers in his own party who oppose his plan to raise the state sales tax.
Corzine wants to increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent to help overcome a $4.5 billion budget deficit and ensure reliable revenue to avert future budget woes.
But several Senate Democrats and most Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., oppose the sales tax increase, saying it’s regressive and unnecessary.
Assembly Democrats on Wednesday laid out a $30.7 billion budget plan relying on a tax on other services, extending casino taxes and creating a new corporate income tax. The Assembly Budget Committee was scheduled to take it up Thursday after Corzine’s speech.
The state’s problem began when lawmakers missed a July 1 deadline to pass a budget. Without it, New Jersey can’t pay state employees, meaning casinos can’t legally operate without state inspectors.
Corzine furloughed more than half the state’s employees. Only about 36,000 people in vital roles such as child welfare, state police and mental hospitals remained on the job, and they were working without pay.
Atlantic City casinos and state parks, beaches and race tracks were ordered to close Wednesday. Atlantic City’s 12 casinos stand to lose more than $16 million a day, and the state $1.3 million a day in taxes from them.
Dealers were sent home in mid-shift, gamblers cashed in their chips before being ushered to the exits, and janitors locked the doors behind them.
“No one wants to see people lose their jobs. We hope this gets resolved as quickly as possible,” said Linda Kassekert, chairwoman of the state Casino Control Commission.
While gambling ceased, the buildings – which also have restaurants, showrooms, stores and meeting space – stayed open. But many gamblers headed for the exits rather than stay around.
“I came down here to have fun, and this is hampering my fun,” said Janice Sidwa, 60, of Williamstown. “Now we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do all day. What else do you do down here?”
At Trump Taj Mahal, 150 people had canceled room reservations by mid-afternoon. Spokesman Tom Hickey said about 2,500 people would be out of work at the three Trump casinos.
Horse racing tracks did not open for business Wednesday, and state parks and beaches also were closed because of lack of staff. But overcast skies and rain kept most visitors at home anyway.
In Jersey City, Felix Morales showed up at the gate of Liberty State Park with his family to go fishing, but was turned away. “Why should the citizens pay for something that the government should have fixed before it got to this point?” he asked.
The effects of the budget stalemate have frustrated the state’s plan to stockpile influenza medicine in case of a flu pandemic. Officials reserved 907,000 courses of antiviral drug Tamiflu from a federal stockpile, but can’t order or pay for the drugs without a budget, said Dr. Fred Jacobs, the state health commissioner.
The deadlock was even being felt over the state line in New York, where limousine services reported cancellations as gamblers chose not to rent cars and drivers to ferry them to Atlantic City.
“I’m getting killed – people have canceled like crazy,” said Stan Spirn, owner of Stan’s Limousine Service.
Whelan softens on casino smoking
By PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau, (609) 292-4935
June 22, 2006
June 22, 2006
Anti-smoking groups want cigarettes banned from casino gaming floors.
Atlantic City’s casino industry would prefer to remain exempt from New Jersey’s indoor smoking ban and simply install a new ventilating system.
Assemblyman Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, finds himself somewhere in between. Once a staunch supporter of adding casino gaming floors to the state indoor smoking ban, Whelan spoke about a compromise this week with those on both sides of the issue. He said he plans to introduce legislation in the fall that would allow smoking on a portion of casino gaming floors ” possibly 20 percent ” with the rest of the gaming floor made smoke-free within a year of the bill’s passage.
It’s very possible I’ll put a bill in that manages to tick off both sides of this, Whelan said. That’s OK.
Whelan met Monday with representatives from New Jersey GASP ” which stands for Group Against Smoking Pollution ” the American Heart Association and other groups that lobbied for the state smoking ban. He spoke by phone Tuesday with representatives of the New Jersey Casino Association.
In terms of getting a consensus for supporting a compromise, we didn’t get to that and we may not get there, Whelan said.
Casino industry executives and anti-smoking advocates agreed with Whelan’s assessment.
Regina Carlson, president of New Jersey GASP, said her group is worried the compromise would make a total smoking ban more difficult.
Basically, we are concerned that if the casinos put a lot of money now into a halfway solution then they won’t want to do the proper solution, which is to go totally smoke-free, Carlson said. They’ll be more resistant to do anything further for a good long time.
Casino Association of New Jersey President Joseph Corbo Jr., who serves as general counsel at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said more time is needed to study the economic impact of a casino smoking ban.
The industry listened to (Whelan’s) concerns, Corbo said. The industry also advised him of the difficult balance that the Legislature dealt with in enacting the current smoking law where the economic impacts to the state, the industry and its employees were considered along with the public health issues.
Corbo referred to a study commissioned by the casino industry that estimates a smoking ban would lead to a 20 percent decrease in casino tax revenue as well as a significant loss of jobs and a decline in capital investment.
Given these circumstances, we believe a more reasonable approach is that which is supported by various government officials in leadership positions, which is to take the necessary time to study this issue in a reasonable and deliberative fashion, particularly since the current law just went into effect on April 15, Corbo said. In that context, we look forward to keeping our dialogue open with Assemblyman Whelan and others.
During his campaign and early in his term, Whelan took up the cause of casino workers who said the gaming-floor exemption placed profits over their health. The exemption was brokered under former acting Gov. Richard J. Codey before Whelan came into office. Corzine said he would not eliminate the exemption until an economic impact study has been performed.
I hear the governor and I think the argument has some validity, Whelan said. When you talk about casinos having to compete in a global marketplace, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but you are competing with New York and Connecticut and even the slot parlors in Philadelphia. It appears likely there’s going to be smoking allowed in those places and they’re a significant marketing segment for Atlantic City.
New Jersey’s smoking ban includes general casino areas but does not extend to the gaming floor, where studies show as many as 40 percent of the clientele smoke. Whelan’s legislation would give casinos one year to set up smoking areas that include ventilating systems. Bars and restaurants would located on casino floors would lose their exemption immediately.
The proposal to allow smoking in 20 percent of gaming floors could change.
We’re trying to come up with a number that goes beyond sticking the smokers in an enclosed small room and gives the casinos enough space to play with, Whelan said. This is a balancing act that balances the public health concerns and the concerns of the casino employees with the economic health in the industry and region. It’s also a balancing act in terms of what is achievable politically. We’ll see if we can come up with a political consensus.
State Sen. Bill Gormley, R-Atlantic, is certain to be part of that consensus. He said some form of a smoking ban on gaming floors is inevitable.
I’ve been talking to the industry also and I think we’re going to have some progress on this issue, Gormley said. I look forward to working with the Assemblyman. I think a resolution is going to be there.
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Smoking ban rolls snake eyes
A.C. gamblers fume about where they can and can’t light up.
A.C. gamblers fume about where they can and can’t light up.
May. 03, 2006
By Suzette Parmley, Inquirer Staff Writer
MICHAEL S. WIRTZ, Inquirer
By Suzette Parmley, Inquirer Staff Writer
MICHAEL S. WIRTZ, Inquirer
ATLANTIC CITY – While he strolled the Boardwalk with a cigarette dangling from his lips, Elio Papa was irate over having to light up in a designated smoking area in one of the casinos.
“The bottom line is, people who want to gamble want to smoke and drink,” Papa, 27, a bar manager from New York, said. “The three go together.”
The exemption to New Jersey’s 21/2-week-old smoking ban that permits smoking on the gambling floor of Atlantic City casinos seems to be bothering the most unlikely of groups: smokers at the resort.
Kenny Thorne, a smoker of 35 years, complained that the smoking ban unfairly restricted his movement in the casino. He said he could not get cash from a nearby ATM or a drink at a bar without having to put out a cigarette – often a fresh one.
“Telling someone they can’t smoke is like telling them they can’t eat,” Thorne, 50, of North Philadelphia, said recently as he puffed while playing a quarter slot machine at the Trump Taj Mahal – the only area of the casino in which smoking is permitted.
While casino owners say it is too soon to tell if the smoking ban will affect business, some employees of the bars and restaurants in the casinos that are not on the gambling floor fear it could hurt them in the long run as competitors find ways to get around the ban.
For instance, they say a threat is near with the reopening of beach bars along the Boardwalk. Beach bars, most of which are expected to open early next month, are seasonal bars attached to the casinos, but are exempt from the ban because they are outdoors.
The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, which took effect April 15, prohibits smoking in all indoor public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants. Eighteen other states have similar bans.
New Jersey lawmakers, mindful that Nevada has not banned smoking, carved out an exemption for Atlantic City’s $5 billion casino industry. Smoking is permitted in a casino as long as it’s confined to the gambling floor. That casino floor has to have at least 150 slot machines and 10 table games, and must be approved by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to qualify for the exemption.
Some casinos, including the Showboat and Trump Taj Mahal, will soon open bars in the middle of their gambling floors. Casino owners say the smoking ban was never a factor in the planning and design of the bars.
Instead, it was in response to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa’s success with B Bar – a trendy bar in the middle of that casino’s cavernous gambling floor – that they set out to emulate. To their delight, when the new bars open this year, they will be exempt from the new law by virtue of being on the casino floor.
Showboat’s nearly 10-month-old House of Blues club and casino has Spirit Bar in the middle of the floor, and a second one, 12 Bar, is under construction and is set to open Memorial Day weekend. Resorts opened 25 Hours – a bar and lounge on its gambling floor – last July where patrons can smoke.
Others are looking to benefit from fortuitous timing. A new bar and lounge next to the Baccarat pit will debut Fourth of July weekend at the Taj Mahal. Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. chief operating officer Mark Juliano said that, although the lounge was planned before the smoking ban became an issue, management was now looking into whether it qualified for an exemption from the smoking ban.
Some businesses at the casinos had prepared for the smoking ban, like Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar. Two outdoor balconies were originally designed on the eatery’s upper floors strictly for aesthetic reasons: to match the restaurant’s Cuban theme. Before Cuba Libre opened in November 2004, the balconies were redesigned to handle outdoor smoking. Smokers have packed the balcony area on weekends since April 15, co-owner Barry Gutin said.
“It’s good to have the balconies anyway, but we understood they had a greater value should a smoking ban go into play,” he said.
On a recent Saturday, Damin Carrera, 31, a firefighter from the Bronx, took advantage of them. “I like coming out here for fresh air,” said Carrera, with a lit cigarette in one hand and a bottled beer in the other.
Cuba Libre is one of nine new restaurants at the $285 million retail, dining and entertainment complex called the Quarter at Tropicana. Each restaurant has a bar, and there are three other separate bars. All are subject to the smoking ban. Several restaurant owners at the Quarter said they were adjusting well to the ban, and believe it will increase patronage.
Jim Haney, general manager of The Palm, recently converted seven booths near the restaurant’s bar from smoking to nonsmoking.
“I’ve had no negative comments,” he said. “It just added… dining seating for us. People did not want to sit there because of the smoking environment.”
The Tropicana has set up designated smoking areas 25 feet from the casino’s main entrance. Casino employees who used to smoke in back areas and loading docks must now go to one of the side streets away from the building like everyone else.
At the Taj Mahal, signs that read “Smoking permitted” were put up April 18 at each of the casino’s entrances. Juliano said designated smoking areas next to all three Trump casinos were getting heavy use.
Not surprising, one area where smoking has increased – and dramatically at some casinos – is on the gambling floor.
John Weisdock, a bartender at the Boardwalk Bar, said customers were still confused as to where they could smoke. He predicted that, over time, the ban would hurt bars like his. Boardwalk Bar is a short stroll from the Taj Mahal’s giant casino floor – but is not on it.
“Once the summer and good weather is here, they’ll get a lot of business at the beach bars,” he said. “There will be a lot of ashtrays out there.”
Contact staff writer Suzette Parmley at 215-854-2594 or sparmley@phillynews.com
Where There’s Smoke, You Don’t Have to Be
by Ninos Malek
April 21, 2006
April 21, 2006
This past January acting New Jersey Governor Richard J. Codey signed into law a statewide smoking ban in “public” places except for casinos. ABC News’s Nightline recently aired a segment on this legislation which is set to go into effect on April 15.
Yet again, the anti-smoking activists want the government to intervene in the economy and the private property (or what should be considered truly private property) of entrepreneurs. One of the women interviewed, a casino supervisor at Trump Plaza, said that smoking caused her asthma and the illnesses of many of her co-workers.
While I sympathize with her and the other employees regarding their health problems, the flaw with her complaint is that she and the other casino employees were not forced to breathe in second-hand smoke. People voluntarily chose to work in those environments and they knew the benefits and the costs when they made the decision to work in the casinos (and if they did not, they could have quit their job soon after they started).
The only two parties that seem to get mentioned in many of these cases are the smokers and the non-smokers. The former argue that it is their right to smoke and the latter argue that it is their right to have clean air. Who seems to be forgotten are the business owners! This misuse of the word “public” is the main cause.
When I ask my friends or students if the government should have the right to tell me whether or not I can smoke a cigar in my own home, they unanimously tell me “No!” But isn’t my home where other people come to eat, drink, talk, or watch television a “public” place? Yet, the same people who concede that my home is private property conveniently do not see the connection between my home and my restaurant (or other establishment). Why? Because they say my restaurant is a public place, established for the benefit of my patrons. I hate to disappoint them, but my business is for my benefit. Sure, I understand that I need many loyal customers who love to spend money at my establishment in order to have a thriving business. However, what people and legislators must realize is that my restaurant, bar, or casino is my private property just like my home is my private property. I made this argument in a previous article for Mises.org entitled “Smoking and Property Rights.”
Critics of the law argue that it is unfair that the casino lobby was able to get an exemption from the smoking ban for their particular industry. One New Jersey restaurant owner said that his business would suffer because his smoking customers and tourists will spend their money at the casinos instead. While he could be correct, the right course of action is not to ban smoking everywhere. The only moral action for the New Jersey legislature is to respect freedom of association and the private property of entrepreneurs.
You do not have to breathe in any second-hand smoke while you are eating, drinking, socializing, or gambling. You do not have to serve, bartend, or deal cards in a smoke-filled environment to earn a paycheck. Now, if Donald Trump walked out on the streets of Atlantic City and kidnapped you and took you to his Taj Mahal casino and put a gun to your head and said, “Take a deep breath pal while I blow this smoke in your face or I will blow your head off” then fine, you would have a legitimate case against Mr. Trump and that would be an infringement of your rights. But I have never seen or heard that Donald Trump or any other private business owner wrestle customers or prospective employees onto their private property!
The bottom line is that if you are a smoker, you do not have a right to smoke in my house nor in my place of business. If you want to smoke at a restaurant, bar, strip club, or casino, open your own. If you can’t, stay home.
And if you are a nonsmoker, you do not have a right to a smoke-free environment in my house or in my place of business. If you want a smoke-free restaurant, bar, strip club, or casino, then open up your own darn place. If you can’t, then stay home.
When people drop their arrogant and self-righteous attitude and realize that it is not a right to work for somebody else or that it is not a right to enter into somebody else’s establishment, and when people learn the difference between the words “public” and “private,” then maybe the incredible waste of time and taxpayer dollars that go toward smoking legislation will stop. Maybe then the government will stop interfering with property rights and start protecting them.
Okay, I need to relax now — time for a cigar while I can still enjoy one.
Ninos P. Malek is a graduate student in the Economics department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Smoking ban doesn’t necessarily clear the air in casinos
February 19, 2006
DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Harry Langel glanced warily at the marble tiles that divide the Toga Bar from the carpeted casino floor at Caesars Atlantic City. It was as if he had entered some strange no-man’s land — a line of demarcation separating smoking areas from nonsmoking sections.
He was told he could smoke on the casino floor, but lighting up at the bar just a few feet away might be illegal in two months.
“It’s crazy,” Langel fumed. “We don’t need Big Brother looking over our shoulder again.”
Langel, 40, a pack-per-day smoker from Toms River, directed his anger at a new state law taking effect April 15 that bans smoking in bars, restaurants and other indoor public places in New Jersey except on casino floors.
Worried that a total smoking ban would harm their business, casinos lobbied successfully to have the gaming floors exempted. The loophole, however, brings its own set of challenges that have some casino executives wondering how they will separate smoking areas from nonsmoking sections literally a few steps away.
“I just don’t know yet because we’re still trying to understand what it all means,” said Larry Mullin, president and chief operating officer of Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
Under the new law, 80 percent of a casino’s hotel rooms must be designated nonsmoking. Although smoking will be permitted on the gaming floor, the bars, restaurants and public areas in the casino hotels will be smokefree. Or, maybe not. Adding to the controversy, some bars considered a formal part of the casino floor will be exempted from the smoking ban.
Audrey Oswell, president of Resorts Atlantic City, said casino bars may have smoking if they are surrounded by at least 250 slot machines and 10 gaming tables. That threshold prevents casinos from exploiting the law simply by putting a small number of gambling machines around a bar to allow smoking there, she added.
At Borgata’s B-Bar, smoking would be allowed because it is in the middle of the casino floor and contains its own video poker machines. Borgata’s Gypsy Bar, a few feet off the casino floor, has no gambling machines and is sealed off by its own walls, so it will likely be a nonsmoking area.
The Toga Bar at Caesars is surrounded by video poker machines and mini-baccarat tables. Lacking any gambling devices within the bar itself, some claim that the Toga Bar and other similar bars should be off-limits to smokers.
“There is legal ambiguity whether bars on casino floors will be smoking or nonsmoking,” said Assemblyman James Whelan, D-Atlantic. “My sense is that they would not be allowed to smoke there.”
Oswell maintained that the Toga Bar and other casino bars will be allowed to have smoking as long as they meet the threshold of at least 10 gaming tables and 250 slot machines surrounding them.
“I think it’s pretty clear. If you have a bar in a casino, it’s exempt,” said Oswell, who is also the president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, the gaming industry’s lobbying group.
Casino beach bars and outdoor decks used for entertainment may be a legal gray area within the smoking law. Their outdoor location suggests they would be allowed to have smoking, but more research needs to be done.
“Technically, all of our decks are outside, but whether they are in the perimeter of the casino building, does that qualify? I don’t know,” said Mark Juliano, chief operating officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the company that owns Donald Trump’s three casinos.
Whelan, a freshman assemblyman and former Atlantic City mayor, introduced legislation in January that would extend the smoking ban to the casino floor. He wants state anti-smoking laws to give gaming employees the same protection from secondhand smoke as workers in noncasino bars and restaurants.
“I don’t see how you can say to a waitress at Tony’s Baltimore Grill that you don’t have to put up with secondhand smoke but you say to a waitress at the Tropicana casino on the same block that you have to put up with secondhand smoke,” he said.
Whelan predicted that a complete smoking ban for casinos will be approved by the Legislature by the end of the year, but in the meantime the state’s anti-smoking law will continue to exempt the gaming floor while adjacent areas will be smokefree.
“They’re sitting at a slot machine at the end of the row where they can smoke and next to it is a walkway where they can’t smoke,” Whelan said of the vagaries that gamblers will face in the new law. “My office has spoken to people at the Casino Control Commission who are saying, ‘What do we have here?’”
Linda M. Kassekert, the Casino Control Commission’s chair, wondered about the “innovative ways” casinos will use to comply with the anti-smoking law but expressed confidence they will cooperate with her agency.
Juliano said casinos have grown accustomed to following rules in the highly regulated gaming industry and should have no serious problems meeting the requirements of the smoking ban.
“I don’t think complying with the law is hard, but there will be tons of issues that we can’t anticipate,” he said.
Casinos will have to clearly identify the nonsmoking areas and erect enough signs so that people won’t be confused, Juliano said. But, he noted, there may be some conflicts in having smoking and nonsmoking areas so close together in the same building.
“Where smoke drifts, there’s nothing you can do about that,” he said.
Smokers seem resigned to more restrictions. Robert Ezze, 75, of Mount Holly, said it is reasonable to accommodate smokers on the casino floor but they should be banned from lighting up in restaurants and bars.
“A lot of bad things can happen because of smoking. I had an uncle and a brother who died of lung cancer,” Ezze, a cigar smoker, said while gambling at Borgata.
Barbara Osada, 64, of Philadelphia, has been smoking for 40 years, but said she will not light up if the gambler next to her is a nonsmoker.
“I enjoy smoking, but I’m not puffing away all the time like a chainsmoker,” Osada said. “It doesn’t bother me if different areas of the casinos are designated nonsmoking.”
Osada spoke while playing the slot machines at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino’s East Tower, which in 2000 became the first completely enclosed gambling room in Atlantic City to go smokefree. Most, if not all, of the city’s 12 casinos have voluntarily set aside smokefree gambling areas in recent years.
Although the majority of Americans do not smoke, it is widely accepted that a large percentage of gamblers do. A tour of any casino in town reveals the gaming floors crowded with smokers. One indicator of smoking’s popularity among gamblers is the brisk business at a small tobacco shop in the middle of Caesars’ casino floor.
Marium Ahamed, a retail assistant at the tobacco shop, said she has sold as many as 1,800 packs of cigarettes in an eight-hour shift, showing that the slot machines and gaming tables aren’t the only money producers in the casino. A pack of cigarettes at the Caesars shop costs $9.90 and the most expensive cigars go for $56.95 each, plus tax,
“We sell a lot of cigarettes here,” Ahamed said, peering up from a stack of receipts. “So far, we haven’t heard anyone say anything about the smoking law.”
Corzine not ready to ban smoking on casino floors
January 21, 2006
PETE McALEER
PETE McALEER
DEL MAR – The city’s staff is recommending that Del Mar prohibit smoking at its beaches and parks and says an ordinance could be in place by late March.
The new rules also would ban smoking at sea walls overlooking the beach and on street ends, parking lots and pathways used for beach access.
The city studied similar ordinances that were passed in Solana Beach and other California cities, and staff members drew up the proposed ordinance at the request of the City Council, which is expected to vote on it Monday night.
The public still has a chance to comment, and a second reading would be required in late February before the proposal could become law. There has been little opposition, and Mayor Crystal Crawford predicted that the ban would be approved.
“The only complaints that we’ve received about this are that we haven’t already adopted it,” Crawford said.
She said some residents won’t agree with the ban and that she has empathy, because smoking is being prohibited in more and more locations.
“If I were a smoker, I would be like, ‘Where am I supposed to smoke?’ ” she said. “I guess the answer is at home or in your car.”
In recommending the ban, the staff report – available on the city’s Web site at http://www.delmar.ca.us/ – cites the health risks of secondhand smoke and beach pollution from discarded cigarette and cigar butts.
The report says Solana Beach, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Santa Monica are among cities that have made parks or beaches smoke-free.
Del Mar officials say they believe signs and friendly reminders from residents or lifeguards would be enough to deter people from smoking in posted areas.
“Concerning enforcement of the no-smoking ban, we believe that with proper signage and public information, it will be largely self-enforcing as has been the case in the other jurisdictions that have taken action to date,” the report says. “As a result, there is no additional cost of enforcing the smoking ban in public beaches, parks, and their entry points.”
Keep Del Mar Clean, a committee formed at the request of the city Parks and Recreation Department, performed several cleanups in 2004 and 2005 and found that much of the litter on beaches and surrounding areas came from cigarette butts.
The City Council heard in November from local community groups and teens who participated in the cleanups and from the Del Mar Parks and Recreation Committee, which asked the city to ban smoking at local beaches.
Keep Del Mar Clean has been working with Parks and Recreation on a plan to place trash receptacles at beach and park entry points for smokers to safely extinguish cigarettes and cigars. They also plan to post no-smoking signs.
“Of course, smokers may feel that this is another regulation targeted at them. I’m sure we’re going to hear some complaints about it,” Crawford said. “But it’s really an effort to keep our beaches and parks clean and to provide a healthy environment for all of our residents and visitors.”
Monday’s council meeting will start at 6 p.m. in council chambers at 1050 Camino del Mar.
New Jersey mulls casino smoking ban
January 20, 2006
‘I’d like the smoking ban to be universal’
It’s tempting for Las Vegans to chortle and encourage New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to: “Go ahead, make our day.”
Mr. Corzine said Thursday that he needs more time to decide whether to support legislation that would extend New Jersey’s smoking ban to casino floors.
Speaking to reporters at the Statehouse in Trenton, Gov. Corzine said he wants to examine whether Atlantic City would be at a competitive disadvantage to other gambling cities such as Las Vegas if smoking were banned.
“In an ideal world, I’d like the smoking ban to be universal,” Mr. Corzine explained.
Words full of significance. As those who knew how to invest capital to create jobs and prosperity hotfooted it out of St. Petersburg in the days following the Russian Revolution, one can easily imagine Comrades Lenin and Trotsky musing, “In an ideal world, we’d like the ban on private property to be universal.”
Funny how those who would use the force of the state to impose “idealistic” new tyrannies on the masses “for their own good” eventually figure out the only way this is going to work is to impose their tyrannies universally, or (failing that) to shoot anyone who tries to climb the fence. Otherwise, people have the darndest habit of picking up their stuff and fleeing to freer regimes.
A tendency from which Nevadans have been making money for generations.
The masters of Canada’s dictatorial medical monopoly hate the fact that America sits nearby, constantly reminding their medical captives that 18-month waits for surgery or an MRI need not be “normal.” The slave states used to hate the fact that juries in the free states refused to return their runaway chattels. Alcohol prohibition enacted state-by-state was too easy to circumvent by making a “border run” — only a nationwide “Great Experiment” would satisfy the Prohibitionists. (How did that work out, by the way? Do we really want to try it again, this time with nicotine?)
Make no mistake, smoking is bad for one’s health; young folks should be discouraged. But it’s one of many “bad decisions” that adults must be left free to make on their own if we are to continue to lay claim to being anything approaching a “free country.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey signed a general smoking ban for New Jersey bars and restaurants into state law Jan. 15.
But the outgoing governor had agreed to the casino exemption to improve the measure’s chance of passage — and out of concern for the $350 million in state taxes generated by Atlantic City’s 12 casinos.
But to such “hygienic” puritans, a “compromise” marks only an interim step on their way to a total ban. New Jersey Democratic state Sen. Shirley Turner, sponsor of a bill to eliminate the days-old casino exemption, explains: “It’s a horrible message to say it’s OK for casino moguls to poison the lungs of their workers with second-hand smoke because they have the political clout to ‘buy’ a deadly exemption.”
Eventually, the zealots may succeed in New Jersey. Before long, “cigarette boats” will be smuggling something other than coke and pot into Cape May and Ocean City, and gunfire not heard since 1933 will again punctuate the night.
Given that most Atlantic City gamblers arrive by bus and have few other options, business may not fall off too precipitously. That will then be used as evidence that Las Vegas can and should follow suit — never mind the fact that smoke-free casinos have been tried here and failed in open competition — and never mind that Asian and other tourists arriving by air do have other options.
Clean living is great. Preach it from the pulpits, by all means. But governments have tried to outlaw human nature before. Those failures were one reason the Founders gave us a Bill of Rights, declaring the religion of Puritanism may not be “established,” by law on these shores.
Whelan bill would add casinos to smoking ban
By PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau, (609) 292-4935
(Published: January 19, 2006)
(Published: January 19, 2006)
TRENTON-An Atlantic County lawmaker wants to lead the effort to add casino gaming floors to a soon-to-be-enforced statewide smoking ban.
Freshman Assemblyman Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, has introduced legislation that adds casino gaming floors to the Smoke-Free Air Act, which bans smoking inside public establishments, signed Sunday. Gaming floors are exempt from the ban under the current law, which goes into effect April 15.
Gov. Jon Corzine did not say if he would support eliminating the casino exemption.
“Hundreds of bills are introduced in the Legislature annually,” Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said. “This is one that we will be following.”
Whelan opposed the exemption for gaming floors during his campaign for Assembly, saying Atlantic City’s 40,000 casino employees deserve the same protection from secondhand smoke as everyone else.
“It’s only fair to apply the ban across the board,” Whelan said.
Whether the Corzine administration will tackle the issue immediately remains to be seen. Southern New Jersey lawmakers from both parties fought for the exemption.
“We’ll see as it goes through the process,” Whelan said. “I wasn’t here the first time around. I’m here now.”
Similar legislation was also introduced Wednesday on the Senate side. Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, said adding gaming floors to the ban is a logical step.
“We’ve accomplished a significant smoking ban across most of New Jersey,” Adler said. “Now, let’s finish the job.”
The casino industry pushed for an exemption. They cited economic damages suffered in Delaware when smoking was banned at racetracks carrying slot machines. Gov. Richard J. Codey said last week he included the exemption as a political compromise, but added he expected the Legislature to revisit the issue later.
“As other states ban smoking, the economic argument will not hold water anymore,” Codey said.
The smoking ban covers all public places with the exception of cigar bars, tobacco retail establishments and casino gaming floors. Violators could be fined between $250 and $1,000.
Cigar bar is defined in the legislation as “any bar, or area within a bar, designated specifically for the smoking of tobacco products, purchased on the premises or elsewhere.” A cigar bar within a bar must be enclosed and equipped with a separate ventilation system.
Tobacco retail establishment is defined as “an establishment in which at least 51 percent of retail business is the sale of tobacco products and accessories, and in which the sale of other products is merely incidental.”
Ten other states have banned smoking in public buildings.
To e-mail Pete McAleer at The Press: PMcAleer@pressofac.com
N.J. Casinos Get Pass on New Smoking Ban
January 15, 2006
JOHN CURRAN
JOHN CURRAN
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Vince Rennich and Alan Angeloni consider themselves among the losers in New Jersey’s battle to ban smoking indoors.
Although acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed a law Sunday banning smoking in bars, restaurants and most other indoor public places, the rule excludes casino gambling areas. Rennich, a casino table games supervisor, has lung cancer he blames on 25 years of inhaling secondhand smoke.
“A good majority of the time, I’m surrounded in a cloud of smoke,” said Rennich, 47, who doesn’t smoke. “Even if it’s a no-smoking table, it doesn’t help. The way the smoke blows or drifts, you can only go so far. It’ll find you.”
For Angeloni, owner of Angeloni’s II, an Italian restaurant two blocks off the casino strip, the casino exemption is a matter of dollars and cents. Customers won’t be able to smoke at his tables or bar, but they will be at the city’s dozen casinos.
“It’s going to kill me, I know it is,” Angeloni said Wednesday. “Do you know how many conventioneers eat here and come out to the bar to smoke afterward? You can kiss them goodbye, now. They won’t even leave the casino.”
The ban, scheduled to take effect April 15, makes New Jersey the 11th state in the nation to prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars, according to the American Cancer Society. Smoking is already outlawed in New Jersey government buildings, and many private businesses restrict smoking.
Hundreds of individual cities and counties around the country also ban smoking in workplaces, restaurants or bars.
Chicago joins them Monday, when a ban on smoking in public places goes into effect, but the law gives taverns and restaurant bars in the city until 2008 to comply.
New Jersey exempted gambling areas at the request of Atlantic City’s $5 billion-a-year casino industry, which said a total smoking ban would cause losses in profits, state tax revenues and jobs.
“What this is all about is government willing to not protect the health and welfare of their own citizens,” said casino industry critic Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. “In New Jersey’s case, they want to keep the gambling proceeds there, so let `em smoke.”
New Jersey’s law is the first in the nation that explicitly excludes gambling areas, although other states’ bans do not have jurisdiction over Indian tribe casinos, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
Atlantic City’s gambling halls employ about 48,000 people, and the state’s 8 percent tax on casino revenue netted $401 million last year for programs benefiting senior citizens and the disabled.
Lawmakers and anti-smoking advocates say the measure would not have passed the Legislature without the casino exemption.
“Two years ago, I couldn’t get this bill considered in either house,” said state Sen. John H. Adler. “I thought that that was as much as we could get, and the governor concluded the same thing.”
“We had a choice of protecting 98 percent of the people, or zero, and it was an easy choice,” said Regina Carlson, executive director for New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution.
The New Jersey Restaurant Association calls the ban discriminatory because of the casino exemption and plans to file suit asking a federal judge to block its enforcement.
“It should either be everybody or nobody,” said John Exabaktilos, owner of the Ducktown Tavern, about a block from the casino strip. “I took a rundown restaurant and built it up and now the state wants to tell me I have to tell my customers they can’t smoke? It’s just another thing that gives the casinos an advantage.”
Some casino workers disagree about that advantage.
“On a daily basis, we breathe secondhand smoke three or four feet from our nose,” said casino dealer Al DeSimone, 43. “We can’t move side to side, we can’t move away, we’re stuck there. It’s unhealthy.”
Opponents fume over proposed indoor smoking ban
December 14, 2005
ANGELA DELLI SANTI
ANGELA DELLI SANTI
TRENTON, N.J. — For years, state lawmakers and other capital city power brokers have been gathering at Lorenzo’s Restaurant to enjoy a thick, juicy steak, talk politics and, often, puff on a cigar.
So Lorenzo’s owner Armando Frallicciardi Jr. finds it more than a little ironic that on Thursday some of those same lawmakers will take up a proposal that would ban smoking in establishments like his.
The bill before the state Senate on Thursday would ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places. At least seven other states have such bans, including New York, Delaware, California and Massachusetts.
Only Atlantic City’s casinos would be exempt.
Frallicciardi was among a dozen or so food and beverage industry representatives who were at the Statehouse Wednesday lambasting the proposal, which they say unfairly targets small and privately owned businesses.
“This bill is totally hypocritical,” said Frallicciardi. “Why is it focusing on the restaurant industry? Are you saying you don’t care about the health of the people who come to our state to gamble?”
Others say a smoking ban would result in lost business, forcing layoffs and closures.
“A smoking ban would put me out of business,” said Cathy Burke, owner of the Irish Pub, an Atlantic City mainstay located in the shadow of Resorts Casino Hotel. “I’ve had to compete with free food, free liquor (given out by the casinos). It’s not fair.”
Chris Onieal, who owns Onieal’s restaurants in Hoboken and New York City, said, “I think the decision of what goes on in public property should be made by the owner. I’m not here defending smoking. I’m (opposing) all the hypocrisy behind this bill.”
Regina Carlson, executive director of GASP, or Group Against Smoking Pollution, said her group has lobbied for smoke-free workplaces for 30 years.
“We agree with the (New Jersey) Restaurant Association that all public places should be smoke-free,” she said. “There is no reason to exclude the casinos. There is no evidence that there is an economic hazard.”
However, she said a partial ban is better than none and that GASP would support the legislation while continuing to push for the health of casino workers.
Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey supports the measure. It has yet to be taken up by the full Assembly and will die unless both houses approve it by Jan. 9, when the current legislative session ends.
The bill was introduced in the Senate more than a year ago, but amended this month to exempt casinos. That compromise makes the bill more palatable to South Jersey Democrats.
Opponents of a casino smoking ban say it could drive gamblers to other states, prompting job losses and cutting the state’s share of casino revenues.
Most New Jerseyans support an indoor smoking ban in restaurants, but less than half say lighting up should be banned in bars, according to a recent poll.
Fifty percent supported a smoking ban in casinos, according to the Star-Ledger/Eagleton Poll released in October, which had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Gamblers fired up over proposal to ban smoking on casino floors
March 15, 2005
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A smoking ban? In casinos?
Sitting at a Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino slot machine, cigarette in hand, Robin Cancelli considered the question and quickly dismissed it.
“It goes together: smoking, drinking and gambling,” said Cancelli, 48, of Grafton, Mass., pausing at a Jeopardy slot machine Tuesday afternoon. “If they did that, we’d probably stop coming.”
That’s what casinos are afraid of.
Already fighting plans for video lottery terminals at Meadowlands Racetrack, New Jersey’s casino industry is suddenly facing an equally scary proposition _ a statewide smoking ban that would force smokers to pick up their coin cups and walk outside if they want to light up.
A bill to ban smoking in indoor, public places is moving through the Legislature, and casinos would be among those affected. Supporters say the ban is needed to clear the air in restaurants, bars and gambling halls, sparing workers and non-smokers from secondhand smoke.
Casino executives say a smoking ban would frighten business away from Atlantic City’s $4 billion-a-year industry, cutting revenues by up to 15 percent and leading to the loss of 5,000 jobs.
Some smokers say they would stop coming; some would spend less money in the casino if they had to walk away from their slot machine or table game every time they felt the urge.
“They’d curtail their play because they’d have to run out for a cigarette every 20 minutes and they might start thinking, `Oh, maybe I’m losing too much’ or `Maybe I should quit playing,”‘ said casino expert William Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Newer casinos have sophisticated ventilation systems to clean the air, but that doesn’t help dealers and other employees, he said.
“The industry isn’t very nice to dealers. They say `Tolerate it, it’s part of the job,”‘ Thompson said.
For years, dealers and other casino employees have complained about secondhand smoke, with some even filing civil suits against the casinos in hopes of getting them to ban smoking.
“When you leave, your clothes smell like cigarettes and cigars,” said Trish Quintana, 49, a veteran dealer at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino. “You can taste it in your mouth. I’ve never been a smoker but I feel like I am.”
Janet Caouette, a Trump Plaza gambler, said she favors a proposed smoking ban even when casinos offer no-smoking areas.
“Even to get to the no-smoking part, you have to walk through the smoke. Just walking through it bothers me,” said Caouette, 62, of Oxford, Mass.
But many gamblers want to smoke, and the casinos they play in don’t want to alienate them.
“I like to be relaxed when I’m losing money,” said Maureen Crea, 50, of Scranton, Pa., who was playing the slots at Caesars on Tuesday. “Let the smoking go on!”
“If people are willing to come here and blow their money, they should be able to smoke if they want,” said Camille Zaferes, 55, of New York, smoking a cigarette as she waited for a valet to bring her car around at Trump Plaza. “I’m not going to come here and dump my money if I can’t. I’ll just go to Vegas.”
If experience is any indication, Atlantic City would lose some business from a smoking ban, at least initially.
In 2002, Delaware enacted an indoor smoking ban that included the state’s three racinos _ racetracks that have slot machines. In the ensuing year, revenues that had been growing by about 9 percent annually fell by 11 percent, according to Edward Sutor, chief operating officer for Dover Downs Slots in Dover, Del.
To compensate, Dover Downs, Delaware Park and Midway Slots all built outdoor pavilions _ small, enclosed structures, some with canvas roofs _ to give smokers a place to light up.
Sutor, who worked in Atlantic City casinos for 20 years, said Atlantic City’s casinos will certainly suffer if the ban is enacted.
“There’ll be an initial shock. They’ll lose business to other jurisdictions, like we lost it to West Virginia. But as time goes by, people will get used to it,” Sutor said.
The only smoke-free casino in the nation is the Taos Mountain Casino in Taos, N.M., according to the American Gaming Association.
New Jersey’s smoking ban bill, which initially contained an exemption for casinos, is gaining momentum in Trenton, thanks in part to the support of acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, who has so far resisted the pleas from Atlantic City.
“The governor thinks it makes sense to do a comprehensive ban, not a piecemeal one,” said Codey spokeswoman Kelley Heck.
But some wonder whether the state is using the smoking ban bill as leverage to get Codey’s video lottery proposal _ a $150 million boost to the state budget _ approved, or vice versa.
“It looks that way,” said Rider University political science professor David Rebovich. “Odds are, he’s not going to get both.”
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–smokingban-casino0315mar15,0,7844895.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–smokingban-casino0315mar15,0,7844895.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
Proposed smoking ban adds Atlantic City casinos
March 15, 2005
By Rosa Cirianni
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Rosa Cirianni
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON, N.J. — Gamblers would not be allowed to light up on casino floors under a measure passed Monday by a Senate committee that adds casinos to restaurants, bars and offices where lawmakers want to stub out cigarette smoking.
“I am thrilled that we are one step closer to improving public health,” said Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, who crafted the proposed New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act.
After hearing more than two hours of testimony, the Senate Health Committee added casino floors and fraternal organizations, such as Elks Lodges and VFW halls, to the list of places where smoking would be banned. Lawmakers voted 7-0 for the measure; Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, abstained.
“No one has the right to engage in conduct that harms others,” said Fred Jacobs, commissioner of Health and Senior Services for the state. “The public’s health demands we take action.”
Lawmakers, responding to criticism from restaurant owners who claim their businesses will suffer under the proposed ban, said adding casinos to the bill was fair.
“We made the playing field level,” said Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, committee chairman. “No one is disadvantaged.”
Representatives from the Casino Association of New Jersey said a ban would harm the state economy and asked officials to consider creative ways, such as better ventilation, to handle smoking instead of imposing a ban.
Larry Mullin, chief operating officer of the Borgata, said the association estimates 5,000 jobs would be lost in Atlantic City casinos, which would suffer a 15 percent drop in revenue, if the ban is passed.
Other bar, restaurant and tavern owners echoed Mullin. They argued that customers now have a choice whether to patronize a smoking establishment.
“Our customers should dictate our business, not our government,” said Terry Duffy, owner of Duffy’s Ta
