Casino workers advocating for a smoking ban inside Atlantic City’s casinos say the strong performance of several local properties has come at the cost of employees’ lungs and overall health.
More than 6,000 casino employees in Atlantic City are asking the New Jersey Supreme Court to intervene in a two-year legal battle over indoor smoking, arguing that they are denied workplace protections available to nearly all other workers in the state.
The request follows an appellate court decision directing additional proceedings to assess the casino industry’s economic claims about the consequences of a smoking ban.
In her filing to the high court, attorney Nancy Erika Smith wrote: “Petitioners are over six thousand workers in Atlantic City casinos who are poisoned every day at work by secondhand smoke because they are excluded from the Smoke Free Air Act, which protects all other workers.”
The appeal comes as Atlantic City’s casino sector reports strong financial performance. The American Gaming Association recently released figures showing that three Atlantic City properties rank among the top-grossing casinos in the United States. Casino workers pushing for the smoking ban say the success comes at the expense of their health.
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, and Ocean Casino Resort are listed among the country’s leading revenue generators. The association noted that Borgata moved past Encore Boston Harbor last year to become the third-highest-grossing casino in America.
Workers organized under the name CEASE, for Casino Employees Against Smoking’s (Harmful) Effects, say those revenue rankings undercut the industry’s long-standing warning that prohibiting smoking inside casinos would cost thousands of jobs and lead to millions of dollars in lost gambling revenue.
Pete Naccarelli, a longtime Borgata dealer and co-founder of CEASE, told The Press of Atlantic City: “Casinos may be raking in record profits, but the workers powering those profits are still breathing in toxic secondhand smoke every shift. What makes these properties successful is the working people on the casino floor.”
Naccarelli further argued that the industry’s economic rationale no longer aligns with current performance levels. “These record-breaking numbers show that the industry’s claim that smokefree workplaces would cause grave economic damage simply doesn’t hold up,” he said. “It’s time to end this unconstitutional loophole.”
At issue is New Jersey’s indoor air quality law, which explicitly exempts casinos from the smoking restrictions applied to most other workplaces. The appellate court’s order for further proceedings aims in part to evaluate competing economic analyses submitted in the case.
Casinos have partly relied on a report prepared by Spectrum Gaming Group that projects significant revenue declines and job losses if indoor smoking were eliminated. In contrast, workers have cited a study by the Las Vegas-based Gaming Casino Consultants Consortium concluding that smoking bans no longer result in substantial revenue drops for casinos.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2026/03/05/117895-atlantic-city-casino-workers-say-industry-success-has-come-at-cost-of-employee-health
