Atlantic Metropolis On line casino Employees Ask NJ Supreme Courtroom to Ban Smoke
- Atlantic Metropolis on line casino staff have requested the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom to ban indoor smoking
- The lawsuit is introduced by On line casino Staff Towards Smoking Results and the United Auto Employees
Atlantic Metropolis on line casino staff and a union that represents 6,000 of the gaming workers down the New Jersey Shore have petitioned the state Supreme Courtroom to intervene of their ongoing quest to extinguish indoor tobacco smoking on the 9 resorts.
Corey Gamble smokes a cigar whereas attending the Fanatics proprietor Michael Rubin’s Reform Alliance On line casino Night time Occasion at Ocean On line casino Resort on Sept. 13, 2025, in Atlantic Metropolis. On line casino staff are asking the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom to ban indoor smoking. (Picture: Getty)
Final month, a state appellate courtroom discovered {that a} Superior Courtroom choose erred in his consideration of a lawsuit introduced by CEASE (On line casino Staff Towards Smoking Results) and the United Auto Employees (UAW) that challenged the constitutionality of New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act. The regulation offered allowances for Atlantic Metropolis casinos to designate 25% of their gaming flooring for cigarette and cigar smoking.
The lawsuit has since been returned to Superior Courtroom, the place CEASE and the UAW proceed to organize their offensive towards the 2006 statute. The defendants are the state of New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D), and NJ Well being Commissioner Dr. Raynard Washington. An evidentiary listening to is about for July.
Within the meantime, CEASE and UAW are asking the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom to intervene. CEASE is a grassroots coalition of on line casino staff who need to work in a spot freed from secondhand smoke. UAW Area 9 represents about 6,000 Atlantic Metropolis on line casino workers, together with greater than 1,200 sellers who bear the brunt of smoking.
Supreme Courtroom Attraction
The plaintiffs are requesting that the New Jersey Supreme Courtroom think about whether or not the state’s 2006 smoking exemption for casinos infringes on staff’ constitutional rights.
The CEASE and UAW petition cites the Backyard State’s Structure, which states that “all individuals … have sure pure and unalienable rights, amongst that are these of having fun with and defending life and liberty, of buying, possessing, and defending property, and of pursuing and acquiring security and happiness.” The Supreme Courtroom petition highlights the textual content “pursuing and acquiring security.”
In August 2024, New Jersey Superior Courtroom Choose Patrick Bartels dominated with the state that the Smoke-free Air Act doesn’t violate a on line casino employee’s constitutional rights to pursue well being and security. Bartels reasoned that the regulation doesn’t cease an individual from in search of employment in a smoke-free surroundings.
The appellate courtroom discovered that Bartels didn’t adequately think about competing financial research on how a smoking ban may influence the Atlantic Metropolis on line casino business. The appellate judges burdened that their opinion was not a “public coverage resolution” however an order for the decrease courtroom to appropriate its “mistaken strategy in making use of the required constitutional methodology.”
Would Smoking Ban Harm Atlantic Metropolis?
The On line casino Affiliation of New Jersey claims a smoking ban could be catastrophic, prompting many people who smoke to take their gaming enterprise on-line or to close by Philadelphia. A examine commissioned by the casinos projected that smoke-free casinos would result in mass layoffs and ravage the Atlantic Metropolis financial system.
An identical examine commissioned by CEASE proponents discovered {that a} smoking ban now not causes a dramatic drop in gaming income. With smoking charges persevering with to say no, smoke-free casinos may even see income positive factors, the examine concluded.
The New Jersey Supreme Courtroom will determine whether or not to simply accept the on line casino smoking case within the coming weeks. The state’s excessive courtroom sometimes accepts lower than 10% of the petitions it receives annually.
