New Jersey’s $5.8 billion casino industry’s ‘sky is falling’ moment arrives as state senate closes in on smoking ban

No more smoking in Atlantic City casinos? Say it ain’t so, says the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

But the New Jersey Senate health committee has heard voices like Nicole Vitola, co-founder of the Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, who testified before the state Senate’s Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee about how she was forced to inhale secondhand smoke while working as a pregnant dealer at a casino. “The worst decision I ever had to make was going to work every day while pregnant,” she said.

And now the committee has approved a bill that would impose a smoking ban on Atlantic City casinos, which, along with sports betting and online partners, earned $5.8 billion in revenue last year. As this measure heads toward a full state Senate vote, the bill's supporters are steadfast, but critics see a sky full of smoke that's falling.

What the ban's backers say

“We have seen the workers there in Atlantic City and those casinos,” Democratic state Sen. Shirley Turner, co-sponsor of the smoking ban bill, said in an interview with Fortune. “They have seen and experienced the ill health and also the demise of many of their coworkers, people who have never smoked before have passed away and who are suffering from some form of cancer or heart disease or some smoking-related illness.

One Borgata employee with stage 2 breast cancer testified to two state Assembly committees in March: “While I’m not sure we will ever know the exact cause of my illness, I can’t help but wonder if it would have happened if the casinos hadn’t forced me to work in secondhand smoke, I can’t help but wonder if it would have happened if the casinos hadn’t forced me to work in second-hand smoke,” she said.

The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, which banned smoking in public places in 2006, exempts casinos, an essential compromise for the legislation’s passage. Smoking areas make up about 25% of Atlantic City casino floors.

Christina Renna, CEO and president of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, told Fortune that while she obviously recognizes the harm of smoking, she and many others fear a ban could endanger the jobs of the over 22,000 South Jersey residents that work in casinos.

Does gambling have to come with smoking?

Those in opposition to the bill argue that a smoking ban would deter customers and cost Atlantic City important business. Atlantic City casinos saw a dip in profits last year, with nine casinos and two internet-only entities reporting $281.2 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decline of 7.5%. Internet and sports betting revenue has soared, accounting for 45% of Atlantic City’s revenue in November, making physical casinos less necessary.

“The casino workers love what they do. They're extremely hardworking. And we want to make sure those jobs are there for them,” Renna said. “Any kind of policy that could put the economic viability of the casino industry in New Jersey at jeopardy is something we're going to question.”

Renna cited a 2022 Spectrum Gaming report, commissioned by the Casino Association of New Jersey, which said that a full smoking ban could result in a 5.0% and 11.9% decline in gross gaming revenue among patrons who smoke and a net loss of 1,021 to 2,512 casino jobs, based on 2019 pre-pandemic levels, in the ban’s first year.

New Jersey Republican Sen. Vincent Polistina plans to draft a bill calling for enclosed smoking rooms as a compromise to a ban, though enclosed and partially enclosed smoking areas can still pose a risk for secondhand smoke inhalation.

The Casino Association of New Jersey supports alternative legislation to the ban.

“The industry has been and continues to be very willing to discuss potential amendments to the current bill with the legislature that would avert a complete ban at this time,” CANJ President Mark Giannantonio wrote in a statement to Fortune.

Donna DeCaprio, president of Local 54 of the Unite Here union who also opposes the ban, said in a conversation with bill co-sponsor Sen. Joseph Vitale that up to three Atlantic City casinos could be forced to close if Pennsylvania casinos continued to allow smoking.

Turner is skeptical of negative effects of the smoking ban on Atlantic City business. She said after the Smoke-Free Air Act was passed in 2006, opponents had similar fears about the airline and restaurant industries.

"We got the same hue and cry: 'You're going to put us out of business. We're going to have to lay off people, and the sky was falling,'" Turner said. "And nothing like that happened."

Some casinos that have become voluntarily smoke-free did not experience the dip in business that the bill’s opponents are anticipating. Andrew Klebanow of Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming told Fortune in March that smoke-free casinos in Washington, D.C., Boston, and Maryland are financially healthy.

Parx Casino in Philadelphia, an Atlantic City competitor, became smoke-free in 2021, opting to keep their pandemic-era ban in place. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported a 1.23% revenue increase at Parx Casino in August 2023 to $57 million, up from $56.3 million.

Chief Marketing Officer Marc Oppenheimer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in October 2023 that employee morale grew after they went smoke-free. While he acknowledged losing some customers to competitors, Oppenheimer said others supported the ban.

“I can’t tell you the number of people who said, ‘I used to go to those properties but now I go to Parx because I don’t have to smell smoke,’” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com