Allowing smoking in Norfolk’s casino will endanger the health of patrons and employees and could contribute to worsening some peoples’ gambling addictions, anti-smoking advocates say.

“No worker should ever have to choose between their health and a paycheck, but that’s exactly what will happen when this casino opens,” Juana Wilson with the Virginia arm of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects said in a release. She briefly worked at Rivers Casino in Portsmouth.

“Casinos are the only places in Virginia where you can still smoke indoors, and casino workers bear the brunt of that decision.”

Wilson’s group is planning an event ahead of Wednesday’s casino groundbreaking to call on Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to prohibit smoking at the planned casino.