Atlantic City Ex-Mayor Turned Lawmaker Supports End of Casino Smoking

Former Atlantic City Mayor Don River Guardian (R) agrees with anti-smoking advocates that casinos should live unloose of harmful air.

Guardian, the lone Republican who has held the claim of Atlantic City mayor since 1990, served only if a bingle term after losing reelection in 2017. Guardian became a land lawmaker past right smart of the General Assembly’s 2nd District last month, after winning the body politic sit down in November.

Less than a month into his unexampled role, Guardian is supporting legislative efforts to prohibit indoor gambling casino smoking in Atlantic City. Guardian, along with Assemblywoman Claire Swift, both of whom are Republicans representing Atlantic Ocean County, is cosponsoring a cassino smoking ban.

The vizor — A2151 — was introduced on February 7 by Assemblymembers William Moen (D-Camden), Saul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), and Herb Conaway (D-Burlington). The statute law is a clon of Senate Bill 264.

The bills seek to terminate the immunity afforded to Atlantic City casinos under the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act. The jurisprudence prohibits indoor smoking inward to the highest degree public places, but allows casinos to denominate upward to 25 percent of their gaming blank space for smoking.

Current Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. (D) has non publically verbalised a concrete attitude on the smoking issue.

Republican Support Growing

Lawmakers inward Trenton are continuing to bring their championship to anti-smoking gambling casino legislation. It started as a Democratic-led effort, but Republicans proceed to sign up on.

Similar to A2151 in the Assembly, S264 inward the Senate was authored and introduced past Democrats. Senators Shirley Nat Turner (D-Mercer) and Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex) have got also fielded GOP support since introducing the evaluate inward mid-January.

We are doing everything we can buoy to proceed bipartisan for our gambling casino workers,” Jonathan Swift explained.

Casino workers are portion fire the alteration of persuasion regarding gaming floors continuing to Trachinotus falcatus upwardly to 25 percent of their space for indoor smoking. CEASE — “Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects” — has been at the forefront of the campaign. Some gambling casino dealers aligned with CEASE say they cringe when a supporter smoking a butt sits land at their tabularise game.

“We’re sick and tired of the smoke,” Pete Naccarelli, CEASE spokesperson, said to Casino.org.

Casinos Maintain Opposition

The Casino Association of New Jersey (CANJ), the lobbying grouping that represents the gaming interests inward Trenton, continues to contradict legislative efforts to forestall gamblers from smoking indoors.

Gross gaming revenue for Atlantic Ocean City’s ennead casinos continues to remain beneath pre-pandemic numbers. Atlantic Ocean City brick-and-mortar gambling casino win totaled $2.55 one thousand million last year. That is 4.9% below the industry’s 2019 land-based tote up of $2.68 billion.

Joe Lupo, Hard Rock Atlantic City and CANJ president, says smoke-free casinos in New island of Jersey would pose the resorts at a major competitory disadvantage from casinos inwards nearby Philadelphia. PA casinos put up denominate upward to 50% of their gaming flooring for smoking.

New island of Jersey recently afforded Atlantic City casinos substantive revenue enhancement savings past eliminating their iGaming and roving sports betting revenue from their yearly collective belongings task assessments. The legislative travail was led by former land Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who claimed as many as quaternion of the Nina from Carolina casinos would live at lay on the line of closing without such revenue enhancement breaks.

Sweeney did non define which 4 casinos were inwards danger of folding, nor supply any perceptivity for the exact prior to his going from government activity lastly month. Sweeney was shockingly swage inwards the 2021 election past Nicholas Scutari, a Republican truck number one wood with no political experience.