Governor’s Continued Inaction on Eliminating Indoor Smoking Fails to Protect Casino Workers
Atlantic City, NJ —Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, released a statement in response to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s recent remarks regarding the signing of legislation to close the casino smoking loophole:
“Governor Murphy had the chance to make clear that he believes casino workers deserve a safe workplace, but instead he repeated unfounded casino industry talking points about economic harm that they claim would result from protecting the lives of thousands of casino workers. Let’s be clear, casino workers—union and non-union members, table games dealers, bartenders, servers and other hospitality staff alike—want to end indoor smoking, as do a majority of legislators from both parties. Nearly 75% of Philadelphia-area residents would be much more likely to visit Atlantic City casinos if they were smoke-free indoors. An overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters support closing the casino smoking loophole. And casinos that don’t allow indoor smoking, like Parx in Pennsylvania, are thriving, even in the same competitive market with Atlantic City. There is little comfort in knowing that the governor will sign a bill if it reaches his desk. We urge him to take it a step further and use his position to push for legislative action that protects his constituents and prioritizes casino workers’ health while they still have it.”
Listen to Gov. Murphy’s remarks here and see transcript below:
HOST: All right, so we’ve received at least a dozen questions related to this topic, indoor smoking at casinos in Atlantic City, and for context, a judge ruled recently in favor of the casino operators who’ve said that a ban on indoor smoking would hurt their business. The judge specifically ruled that the workers’ reliance on that constitutional right to safety is, quote, not well settled law. So the questions represented by Joanna in Egg Harbor, Nancy in Mount Laurel, not Nancy Solomon, and Nicole in Cape May County. Do you think casino employees have a right to breathe clean air at their workplace like every other person that works indoors? Do you think casino workers have a right to safety? And why don’t you just give the executive order that banned indoor smoking similar to when you did early in the COVID pandemic?
MURPHY: Yeah, because it would be struck down probably within 24 hours is the first answer. I hope folks out there have heard me say this now probably 100 times. If a bill gets to my desk to ban smoking in casinos, I will sign it. I’ve never said otherwise. I’m not sure why all of a sudden the union leader at the UAW who says he can’t wait for me to leave. Okay, sir, I don’t know who you are. God bless you. I wish you well. I hope you have a governor that succeeds me that will sign it as well. I will sign it. We said from the beginning that the overwhelming legal case was not going to be upheld through the judiciary, that this needs a statute. It needs a law. And our folks defended the statute, the current law, rather, because that’s what we do. That’s sort of our obligation. Overwhelmingly, that that’s what we end up doing. It’s not because we took a position on whether there should be smoking or no smoking. I just make two other points that were made here before. There is another union that is measured in the many thousands, which is on the other side of this and that work in these casinos. That is Unite Here Local 54. It’s a different place and folks out there who may not be paying attention to this should know that. This is not an open and shut, one union against everybody else. Secondly, and my friend Joe Vitale won’t like me saying this, there is clearly a health imperative here. That’s pretty obvious. There is the other reality that you’re going to have an impact on business. That doesn’t mean it trumps the health issue. In fact, it could never do that. But folks have to go into this with their eyes open. Again, this is back to union jobs. If those fears are well-founded, that’s also a jobs question that’s at play here. But again, I’ll come back to where I started unequivocally, if a bill gets to my desk, to ban smoking in casinos, I will sign it.
HOST: Why is it that we haven’t seen a bill?
MURPHY: I don’t know. I think I can probably tell you because there are interests on all sides of this and again I’m not saying that I’m disagreeing with the health interest because they’re real. I get it and I feel I have nothing but sympathy for that part of the argument but there are folks who have interests on all sides of this and I’m not sure I have a sense of the prospect for the bill to get to me but I know it picked up some support among Assembly Republicans. I saw a statement earlier this week. I’m not sure that impacts the trajectory of the timing but we shall see.
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ABOUT AMERICANS FOR NONSMOKERS’ RIGHTS
ANR Foundation’s sister organization, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for over 45 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit https://nonsmokersrights.org and https://smokefreecasinos.org
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