Smoking ban sought in casinos

Jeff Linkous

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Barhs Landing has seen a number of cultural shifts in its 88-year history, and the restaurant-marina in Highlands on the Monmouth County bayshore is comfortable with the next one: going entirely smoke free.

But there is one issue owner Raymond Cosgrove wants to raise in that regard. If lawmakers plan to make restaurants and bars go smoke-free, then they should include Atlantic City casinos, he says.

"The indoor clean air act is an act that would protect people in all buildings from second-hand smoke hazards. If that's the case, how in the world could it have any exemptions whatsoever?" said Cosgrove, who is also chairman of the New Jersey Restaurant Association.

On Monday the Senate Health Committee is poised to take up the legislation, the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, which would ban smoking in all indoor public areas, including workplaces, restaurants and bars.

However, casinos, fraternal organizations, private clubs and tobacco shops would enjoy an exemption.

An Assembly version of the legislation would extend the ban to the casinos. The restaurant association plans to attend the health committee's hearing to press for the Senate bill to do likewise; the association has a number of lawmakers in its corner, including acting Gov. Richard J. Codey.

If the legislation is successful, New Jersey would join at least seven states and two countries -- Ireland and Cuba -- that have doused public smoking. The statewide ban in Delaware extends to slots parlors in race tracks, but no freestanding commercial casinos have a complete smoking ban, according to industry officials.

The Senate version's chief sponsor, Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, is open to amending the bill. But Adler said Wednesday he does not want to doom its chances of becoming law.

"I don't want to draw a line one way or another. I don't want to put this off another three or four years," he said.

But it's an even-money bet Atlantic City's casinos would mount a challenge to preserve the exemption, fearing gamblers would take their business elsewhere. The gambling halls pack clout, too, and could point to the millions of dollars the state raises in casino taxes.

The Casino Industry Association of New Jersey declined to comment "at this time," spokesman Brian Cahill said. State Sen. William Gormley, the casino industry's leading advocate in Trenton, said Wednesday he planned to talk to Codey about the issue.

The legislation has set off grumbling among smokers and has become the subject of message traffic on the Web site smokinglobby.com, run by Bill Williams, 35, a New York City resident and Camel Lights smoker who works in Hoboken.

"It should be left up to individual establishments," said Williams, who now frequents Garden State bars because of New York City's public smoking prohibition.

Twenty-two percent of the U.S. adult population smokes, and most of them are concentrated in the country's lower socio-economic rung, according to John F. Banzhaff III, a George Washington University law professor at the forefront of lawsuits against tobacco companies.

About 96 million Americans have a chronic upper respiratory condition that makes them especially sensitive to tobacco smoke, according to anti-smoking activists.

Banzhaff and other health activists argue that breathing secondhand smoke -- whether exhaled or wafting from burning cigarettes -- poses risks of cancer and heart attack similar to what smokers face. Restaurant and bar patrons, and workers in the hospitality and casino industries, are getting hefty doses of that smoke, activists say.

Sectioning off areas for smokers and nonsmokers solves nothing, Banzhaff said, even if separate ventilation systems are used.

"It's like having a swimming pool with a urination and nonurination area, it doesn't work," he said. "If Ireland can ban smoking in bars, then anyone can do it. The traditional smoky Irish pubs are no more. The pubs are not out of business, the world has not collapsed, the people are much healthier."