Smoke-Free Casino Group Thinks Atlantic City Would Benefit From Tobacco Ban

By jili tutorial · September 1, 2026

Smoke-Free Casino Group Says Atlantic City Would Benefit from a Tobacco Ban

A coalition that has spent years lobbying New Jersey lawmakers to ban smoking inside Atlantic City’s nine casinos believes going tobacco-free would better prepare the resort town for the future. Atlantic City is facing uncertain times, but a group of workers opposed to smoking argues that a smoke-free environment could brighten the city’s prospects.

Grim Outlook for Atlantic City’s Casino Industry

Last week, Casino.org reported on an analysis from the Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA) that raised serious concerns about Atlantic City’s future. The nonprofit economic development corporation warned that more than 8,000 casino jobs are at risk. The ACEA pointed to online gambling and three new downstate New York City casinos as the biggest threats to Atlantic City’s gaming market.

Why CEASE Believes a Smoking Ban Is the Answer

Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) argues that a key move to prepare the gaming market for the future is for casinos to go smoke-free. “If casino executives want to bring people who are choosing to stay home back to Atlantic City’s casinos, they should make the in-person experience better. Eliminate indoor smoking,” said CEASE co-founder and table game dealer Pete Naccarelli.

While casinos in New York are 100% smoke-free, casinos in nearby Philadelphia—a major feeder market for Atlantic City—can designate supposedly smoke-free gaming sections. However, because the law in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania does not require those sections to be physically separated from smoking areas, critics say patrons everywhere on the floor are exposed to dangerous secondhand smoke.

Bipartisan Bills Stalled in the Legislature

In 2022 and 2023, legislation to amend the 2006 New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act—closing the tobacco exemption that allows smoking in Atlantic City casinos—had enough support in both chambers of the New Jersey Legislature. During the 2022–23 regular session, Senate Bill 264 was sponsored by 23 of the 40 state senators. Its companion bill, Assembly Bill 2151, was backed by 56 of the 80 assembly members.

Despite the bipartisan support, the bills never went up for a vote. The November 2023 elections, in which all 120 state Senate and Assembly seats were on the ballot, were initially blamed for Democratic leaders refusing to bring the casino smoking bills to the floor. The delay gave the casino industry time to lobby lawmakers, arguing that a smoking ban would push some gaming revenue to Philadelphia and lead to thousands of job cuts.

Lawmakers later began exploring a compromise that would require casinos to offer smoking only in physically separated rooms with their own ventilation systems. Naccarelli called on state lawmakers to dismiss the casinos’ ongoing lobbying efforts against legislation that would provide workers with smoke-free workplaces.

“If the casino industry was truly concerned about visitors to their brick-and-mortar properties, let alone the well-being of its employees or the working-class communities it claims to support, there is an easy step it can take,” Naccarelli said.

Casino Industry’s Counterarguments

In response to the 2022 legislative push, the Casino Association of New Jersey commissioned Spectrum Gaming, a respected research firm in the U.S. gaming industry, to analyze the impact of a smoking ban. The study found that a full smoking ban would result in a nearly 11% decline in brick-and-mortar gross gaming revenue in the first year after implementation. That drop would lead to as much as $44 million in reduced gaming taxes and as many as 2,500 job losses, Spectrum said.

However, during a 2025 casino smoking webinar, Dr. Geoff Atkinson, a senior marketing research manager at Management Science Associates (a Spectrum affiliate), said, “It is not at all obvious that smoking or being smoke-free is a great advantage or hindrance.”