Atlantic City: Smoking in Casinos Returns

ATLANTIC CITY – “Everybody lit up, everybody,” says Katie Spillane describing an area of Borgata slots at 12:01 this morning, the minute the smoking ban was lifted.
“The hooray’s and ‘yeah it’s back’ and the people slinging ash trays for us, it was great,” she says.
For more than a month Atlantic City’s casino gaming floors were completely smoke free, now it’s back to 25 percent can allow smoking.
Gamers like Joseph Jerome say smoking where they play is a huge convenience; he’s had 2 knee replacements and has a hard time getting around.
“You don’t want to do something extra that takes away form the time on the floor cause you only have a certain amount of time,” says Jerome.

A casino smoking ban was approved in April for all of Atlantic City casinos. The ban went into effect on October 15th. However, right around the time the ban was to go into effect, the City Council of Atlantic City was concerned about the economic impact the ban would have, particularly with the struggling economy.

So, on October 27th, the City Council agreed to postpone the smoking ban for at least one year.

Of course, not everyone is happy:

“When the people started lighting up I thought I can’t do this, I can’t do this for another year,” says Kim Hesse, a dealer at Caesar’s.
She says she already has a sore throat after one smoke–filled shift, and having a smoke–free work environment like the rest of New Jersey workers for just a month was a tease.
She say, “The state nobody’s, doing anything; the city, nobody’s doing anything; the casinos, nobody’s doing anything. It’s our health! I don’t understand what the problem is, it should be cut and dry.”

In other words, Kim wants to dictate how her employers run their business, regardless of the fact that they own the business. Does she really get a sore throat from the smoke, or have anti-smoking people gotten into her head and convinced her that the smoke is hurting her? I can honestly say that I’ve never gotten a sore throat from second-hand smoke. Ever.

Kim also must be oblivious to the fact that there are other jobs out there. Presumably, the casinos pay quite well, and she feels that she is entitled to keeping that pay, and not have to be in an environment where patrons are welcome to smoke.

But, not all jobs are created equal. If you want to work at a concert hall, you have to tolerate loud music. If you are a highway worker, you have to tolerate intense heat and careless drivers. And if you are a casino worker, you have to tolerate your patrons activities. If you don’t like the fact that they smoke, then perhaps you should get a job at a concert hall, and then we can just hope that the music will be loud enough so we don’t have to hear Kim whine.