NYT: Smoking Ban Likely for Atlantic City Casinos

Article in the New York Times -- As Atlantic City Eyes Smoking Ban, Casinos Fear Losses, by Laura Mansnerus.  The impending ban is an interesting postscript to the Avallone case, in which Judge Corodemus in 1999 denied class certification to a putative class of Atlantic City casino workers suing for medical monitoring based on secondhand smoke exposure; the proposed class faltered because of individualized issues.  Here's an excerpt from the article:

Here on the casino floors are the few square feet in New Jersey — indoors, anyway — where a person can go out and have a drink and a cigarette at the same time.

But that may soon change.

Less than a year after gaining an exemption from a statewide smoking ban from the New Jersey Legislature, casino owners are watching that slip from their grasp. Citing concerns about secondhand smoke, the City Council seems intent on establishing a ban of its own.

If the proposed ordinance passes, Atlantic City will see whether gamblers who smoke can be separated from their cigarettes or whether, as the owners of the city’s 11 casinos contend, they will take their business elsewhere.

BGS