Casino workers and customers and health-care advocates will rally Thursday in Pittsburgh to support eliminating smoking on gaming floors in Pennsylvania and other states. The event will take place outside Rivers Casino Pittsburgh, where members of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States will be attending the group’s semiannual meeting.

“This rally is designed to raise awareness,” said Traci Kennedy, Midwest states strategist for the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation and a rally organizer. “If you’re going to be talking about the most pressing issues in the gaming industry, smoke-free should really be part of the agenda.”

Council President Shawn Fluharty, one of 11 Democrats in the 100-delegate West Virginia House, said the smoking issue is a decision for individual states or health departments. He also said no one had asked about possibly including the topic part of the group’s agenda.

The council’s four-day gathering is expected to draw about 150 legislators and state officials. The agenda features such topics as responsible gaming, sports betting, and igaming, but not many states’ exemption of casino floors from clean-indoor-air laws.

Legislatures in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Kansas considered bills this year to remove their exemptions, but none won approval. In addition, a New Jersey judge heard arguments in May on whether the exemption violates the state constitution, but hasn’t issued a ruling. Twenty states ban smoking in commercial casinos; more than 150 tribal casinos prohibit it as well. Those operators typically provide an outdoor patio for customers who want to light up.

“(Smoking in casinos) is an issue that is clearly local and, quite frankly, has been debated ad nauseam for decades,” Fluharty said. “I’m not a smoker. I don’t like going to places that have smoking. However, this remains a local issue.”

Wence Valentin III, political director for United Auto Workers Region 9, called casino smoking policies “a health-and-safety issue, a life-and-death issue.” The union represents casino employees in New Jersey and other states.

Proposals to ban smoking in casinos have picked up steam since 2021, when Atlantic City dealers formed CEASE (Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects).

Jennifer Rubolino, a Rivers Pittsburgh dealer who is active in the Pennsylvania CEASE group, said she has encouraged players to attend Thursday’s rally, which starts at noon. “This is a serious health matter. Why do we need to go round and round about it?” she asked. Pennsylvania allows smoking on up to half of the casino floor, although nonsmoking areas don’t have to be contiguous.

Kennedy noted that Parx Casino in Philadelphia has voluntarily been smokefree since a COVID mask mandate ended and remains the state’s top revenue producer. State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, who is expected to attend the rally, has repeatedly introduced a bill to end the casino exemption. This year was the first time it passed the House Health Committee, but it has gone no further.

Operators who favor the clean-air exemption contend that a smoking ban would reduce their revenue and state gaming-tax collections, even though many have casinos in states that prohibit smoking. Bally’s proposed $1.7 billion casino-hotel in Chicago and massive casino projects planned for New York City would be required to have smokefree gaming under those states’ laws.

Kennedy said smokefree workplaces are so common that many people are surprised to learn smoking is allowed on many gaming floors. She told of a Rivers dealer who was pregnant and passed out on the job, due to exposure to secondhand smoke. “People do seem to find the stories of casino workers really compelling and the kind of injustice that people are still being exposed to secondhand smoke is wrong.”

Valentin recalled his shifts at an engine plant near Buffalo, N.Y., where safety signs exhorted workers to “go home the way you came in.” For many casino workers, that can’t happen, he said. “You cannot go home from these casinos without smelling of smoke, without taking that nicotine home to your family. We want (casino workers) to know that we have their backs.”

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