Atlantic City Council will vote on Friday whether to pass the smoking ban bill that can be made into law by Mayor Robert Levy. The law would ban smoking at the city's 11 casinos.
Fears for the livelihood of about 15,000 casino employees arise as the casino operators believe that their customers will go to smoker-friendly casinos in the area, such as Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, the Native American-owned casinos in Connecticut, or to the new slot machine parlors in Pennsylvania.
According to Joseph Corbo, the chief of Casino Association of New Jersey, the smoking ban will cause a 20 percent decrease in revenue for casinos in Atlantic City, resulting in around 3,400 employees being laid off.
The casino owners want the bill to be rejected, but they will settle for it to be postponed for further study. Even if the bill becomes law, it is possible that the casinos might sue on the grounds that the state, not the city, has jurisdiction over the casinos.
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