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Online Blackjack News - Will Gamblers Keep Smoking?
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New Jersey's powerful casino industry has won two key concessions in the last two years designed to keep smokers happy. First, the Legislature banned indoor smoking everywhere except casino floors, as of April 15, 2006. Then the Atlantic City Council, after considering a full ban, required that three-quarters of a casino floor be smoke-free. The change took effect April 15.
Now casinos are complaining that even the partial ban is making their shaky financial condition worse. Not only is it driving away smokers, executives said, but it forces casinos to spend millions erecting smoking enclosures on gaming floors that might become unnecessary should the state prohibit all indoor smoking. The state Senate in June approved such a ban. Some casino employees, meanwhile, complain breathing is much harder when they work in the smoking areas because the smoke is more concentrated.
Casino magnate Donald Trump ripped the debate open anew Aug. 15 when he wrote to city officials complaining that their restrictions were driving gamblers to Pennsylvania and other neighboring states. “The city gaming floor smoking ban should be repealed” or at least suspended until other states ban smoking, Trump wrote. He said the enclosures would "look absolutely terrible" and were "already being called smoke boxes or choking boxes."
Trump's letter infuriated Councilman G. Bruce Ward, who threatened to renew his push for a full municipal ban. “I lost, I took my lumps and went away,” Ward said, adding that Trump had “brought the issue back onstage.” He said Trump's letter had angered his colleagues to the point where "we could get more and more individuals on council to start leaning in our direction."
Resorts Atlantic City and the Atlantic City Hilton have lost a total of $5.9 million because of the smoking restrictions, said Tony Rodio, regional president for both casinos. The two casinos found that after the restrictions were imposed, smoking areas of the floor gained in revenue while nonsmoking areas took a dive, Rodio said. Rodio said he wasn't against a smoking ban but wished neighboring states would follow suit. (The Pennsylvania legislature is considering a statewide indoor smoking ban and whether it should apply to casinos.)
For now, casinos are using signs to separate the areas.
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| Source:
Blackjack2002 News Staff
| Wednesday, 29 August 2007 |
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