It’s time casinos are required to follow the same air quality laws as other public businesses. That according to a former state assembly member Loretta Weinberg, who helped write New Jersey’s Smoke-Free Air Act.
Thanks to the efforts of State Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D) of Trenton, the Smoke-Free Air Act was signed into law in 2006 by then-Governor Richard Codey. The law requires all government buildings and most public and commercial buildings to be free of smoking. Notably, casinos were excluded from that requirement.
But Weinberg, now retired from elected office, always wanted to remove that loophole. She penned an op-ed for the Star-Ledger last week urging a change to the current law.
“I fought the powerful tobacco industry and the third-party advocates the industry manipulated and mobilized to fight smoking restrictions. Unfortunately, we were unable to pass the Act unless we excluded casino workers from its protections. We simply did not have the votes, so we acquiesced, trying to protect as many people as possible while expecting to close this unjustified loophole in the near future.”
Weinberg believes casinos don’t deserve exception to law
According to the Center for Disease Control, nine states that allow casino gaming have a ban on smoking in casinos. Those states include New York and Massachusetts. Five states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, have partial bans that only allow smoking in designated smoking areas.
After sponsoring the Smoke-Free Air Act so many years ago in an era when many states and the federal government were taking steps to make public spaces smoke-free and healthier, Weinberg is surprised challenges still remain.
“I never imagined that nearly two decades later, casino workers and patrons would still be subjected to poisonous secondhand smoke,” Weinberg wrote in her opinion piece. The Democrat spent nearly two decades in the New Jersey state legislature, as a member of the assembly and then as a state senator until 2022.
“It is time to release the grip of the tobacco industry on the hearts and lungs of our family, friends, and neighbors. They are not the cost of doing business. They are not expendable. They are human beings who simply want the same safe workplace as everyone else.”
A ban on smoking in casinos may not be bad for business, while helping public health, says the CDC. According to a report from the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services in 2013, “Smoke-free laws have a high level of public support and compliance, and research has shown that smoke-free laws do not negatively affect sales or employment in the hospitality industry.”
CEASE pushing for smoking ban in NJ casinos
Current Governor Phil Murphy, who is running for a third term in 2025, favors a ban on smoking in casinos. So far, few legislators have come out strongly in support of a ban on smoking in casinos. Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), an activist group that supports a ban in several states, has pressured New Jersey officials to take action.
CEASE has sponsored public protests against smoking in casinos in New Jersey, and also coordinated a digital marketing campaign about the health risks of smoking in public areas in September in hopes of spurring lawmakers to introduce a bill to amend the Smoke-Free Air Act. In early 2024, CEASE helped bring a lawsuit on behalf of workers against New Jersey casinos, alleging that the law could not allow casinos to be exempt from a smoking ban. In August, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Patrick Bartels tossed out the lawsuit, essentially ruling that the Smoke-Free Air Act could continue to operate as it has for nearly 20 years.
A notable critic to the loophole allowing casinos to permit smoking is Assembly member Brian Bergen, a Republican. Bergen criticized New Jersey State Speaker Craig Coughlin for not putting a casino smoking ban bill on the agenda last legislative session.
