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Casinos Immune to New Jersey Smoking Ban
New Jersey bar,
restaurant, and bowling alley operators are repulsed by the exemption
of casinos from the state’s new ban on smoking indoors. They have
decided to combine their forces. The coalition of operators is
challenging the constitutionality of the ban in a federal lawsuit.
In the words of
Armando Frallicciardi, proprietor of Lorenzo’s Restaurant, “What’s
happening here is the state of New Jersey is giving an unfair
advantage to the Atlantic City casinos.” Lorenzo’s, a landmark in
Trenton, was once known for it cigar-friendly environment.
Frallicciardi’s
perspective is that casinos “already have the monopoly on gambling,
and on giving drinks away at less than cost. Now they’re going to
give them another monopoly, letting them be the only place in the
state you can smoke indoors.” Lorenzo’s Restaurant is a member of the
team of plaintiffs.
The new Smoke-Free Air Act in New Jersey takes effect on April 15th
of this year. The ban excludes the casino floor of Atlantic City’s 12
gambling halls; however smoking will no longer be permitted in any of
the state’s indoor business locations, including private office
buildings.
As the bill went through state legislature, casinos actively lobbied
for the exemption clause. Casinos feared that an all inclusive ban
would severely damage business by driving customers away, ultimately
leading to employee cut backs and diminishing the state’s casino tax
revenues. Many sponsors and supports of the bill recognized the
handicap Atlantic City casinos would have competing against casinos
that permit smoking.
It turns out that no victory is complete. Casino employees now feel
they are getting the short end of the equality stick. A number of
them believe it is unfair that their health is being disregarded while
the rest of the state gets an improved work environment. On behalf of
the unfair treatment of casino employees, assemblyman and former
Atlantic City mayor, James Whelan, has filed legislation that would
include casinos in the Smoke-Free Air act.
Indoor smoking bans are not new to the United States, April 15th
will make New Jersey the 11th state to impose such an act.
New Jersey is breaking precedent in being the first to explicitly
exempt casinos. They have also excluded cigar bars and tobacco
retailers. Any other business establishment in the state will be
forced to pay a fine between $250 and $1,000 for noncompliance.
The group filing the lawsuit in the U.S District Court is composed of
not only owners of several restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys but
the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Association, the New Jersey
Restaurant Association, and the New Jersey Hospitality Industry for
Fairness Coalition are also included.
The group’s lawyer, Robert Gluck, pointed to the exemption of casinos
as the motivation for them to sue. Gluck says, “We’d be satisfied if
it were across the board to everyone in the hospitality industry. The
casino exemption is the nub of the case. For the life of us, we can’t
figure out why the casinos are exempted, except politics.”
“It’s pathetic
that theses restaurant and bar owners have the gall to try and keep
poisoning the bodies of their workers and customers,” says state
Senator John H. Adler. Adler was a sponsor of the law. He says the
casino exemption was a necessary sacrifice to make long over due
progress in an important health issue. Though he does not support the
efforts to have the law reversed, he does support legislation that
would lift the casino exemption.
A constitutional law expert says this law will change. A judge will
either remove the casino exclusion or strike the law as
unconstitutional. Rutgers-Camden School of Law professor, Robert
Williams, is in agreement. “My sense is that since this is such an
obvious and admitted political compromise, I would think a court – if
it were going to strike it down – would send the whole thing back to
the Legislature, as opposed to extending it to casinos. It’s clear
the Legislature didn’t want to do that.”
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