Posted on: December 5, 2024, 09:05h.
Last updated on: December 5, 2024, 09:05h.
Indoor casino smoking is allowed in 15 states that have commercial gambling facilities. In 2025, the odds are good that state lawmakers across the nation will consider whether it’s time to extinguish cigarettes and cigars and provide gaming workers a smoke-free workplace.
CEASE — Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects — is leading the campaign to make all commercial casinos free of secondhand smoke. CEASE originated in New Jersey after indoor smoking was allowed to return to the nine casinos in Atlantic City following a temporary ban during the pandemic.
The grassroots coalition gained the political and financial backing of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation (ANRF), a national nonprofit committed to preventing the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Together, CEASE and ANRF are lobbying lawmakers in states where casino smoking remains to pass laws to force smokers outside.
They haven’t yet been successful, as no state has adjusted its smoking regulations related to casinos. But the anti-smoking advocates think 2025 could see the odds tip in their favor.
State in Focus
CEASE leaders are focused on several states where opinions are seemingly changing in favor of smoking bans. CEASE has expanded from New Jersey with active chapters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
New Jersey, Kansas, and Missouri seem likeliest to act on tobacco bills next year. Legislation is expected in those states to overall those states’ clean indoor air laws to end the gaming smoking exemptions.
The dangers of secondhand smoke have long been known. The CDC says there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and the only way to fully protect workers and gamblers is for casinos to be 100% smoke-free. Designated smoking areas are largely ineffective, as are most air filtration systems, the national public health agency found in a 2023 study.
Last month, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General reported that despite cigarette smoking among youth and adults reaching the lowest levels ever recorded during the past decade, more than 19K deaths are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure each year. Nearly 500K people die each year in the U.S. from cigarette smoking.
Casino workers have waited far too long to be afforded the same protections as other workers. We have countless colleagues who are now subjected to inhalers and oxygen tanks or have been diagnosed with cancer after working in smoke-filled casinos,” said Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of CEASE.
The Surgeon General’s report detailed that secondhand smoke most impacts people “who spend extended amounts of time in environments where smoking occurs.” The report specified casino workers as being “at an increased health risk.”
Smoking Prevalence
The casino lobby maintains that smoking bans are bad for business and lead to layoffs. Determining if that’s true depends on which research one reads, and which side of the argument commissioned the study.
What is known is that smoking rates continue to decline. The CDC says less than 20% of the adult population smokes, but tobacco products remain the leading cause of preventable disease and death.
