It’s been 375 days since smoking returned to Atlantic City casinos on July 4, 2021. That’s more than a year of thousands of casino workers breathing dangerous secondhand smoke that jeopardizes their health. More than 20 other states have already taken steps to protect casino workers from secondhand smoke. It’s time to close the casino smoking loophole by passing bipartisan legislation that more than half of the New Jersey legislature is co-sponsoring.
A lot has happened over the last year-plus. Here’s a timeline of key events since last Independence Day:
- July 4, 2021: Smoking returns to Atlantic City casinos after Governor Murphy lifts emergency order.
- July-August 2021: Atlantic City casino dealers organize thousands of their fellow workers to fight the return of indoor smoking, form a group called Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects (CEASE).
- August 25, 2021: City Councilors in Atlantic City pass a resolution supporting state bills to close the casino smoking loophole.
- September 22, 2021: Governor Murphy says he’d sign legislation to close casino smoking loophole.
- October 2021: At the two biggest casino gaming industry events of the year, in Las Vegasand Atlantic City, casino workers speak out against indoor smoking.
- November 2021: Entire Atlantic City legislative delegation co-sponsors bill to close the casino smoking loophole.
- December 9, 2021: Casino workers rally in Trenton to urge legislators not to give casinos a tax break without also protecting their health by closing the smoking loophole.
- April 12, 2022: 16 years after the casino smoking loophole was created, more than 250 casino workers rally in Atlantic City to push to end indoor smoking.
- April 28, 2022: The United Auto Workers (UAW), the union representing Atlantic City casino dealers, urges legislative leaders to advance bills to close the smoking loophole.
- May 2, 2022: UFCW Local 152, which represents 16,000 retail, manufacturing and healthcare workers in South Jersey, Eastern PA and Delaware, announced their support for legislation in Trenton to eliminate the casino smoking loophole.
- May 18, 2022: The fight to end indoor smoking at AC casinos draws national attention as CNBC features a casino worker on leave for cancer treatment who fears returning to a smoke-filled workplace.
- May 31, 2022: Hard Rock Atlantic City allegedly tries to prevent employees from talking about ending indoor smoking because the company opposes it.
- June 14, 2022: New Jersey doctors and public health groups urge legislative leaders to advance legislation to close the casino smoking loophole.
- June 17, 2022: An independent report finds that casinos without indoor smoking outperform their smoking counterparts, and that Atlantic City would not lose gamblers to the handful of remaining eastern Pennsylvania casinos that allow indoor smoking.
- January 2022 – June 2022: Support for legislation to close the casino smoking loophole grows exponentially, as 20 Senators and 43 Assembly members sign on as co-sponsors. More than half of the New Jersey legislature is now co-sponsoring the bills.
- July 7, 2022: In an op-ed for thePhiladelphia Inquirer, Atlantic City casino worker Tammy Brady writes about her experience as a table games dealer being forced to work among clouds of secondhand smoke and her concerns about returning to such unhealthy conditions as she battles cancer.
