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Atlantic City Says No Smoking
The anti-smoking law that Atlantic City
passed making casinos 75% smoke free has
gone into effect, and the casinos are
not happy about it. The law goes into
effect just as the casinos started
saying that they were earning slightly
higher revenues than they did a year ago
– and that this was good considering the
competition they have gotten from
Pennsylvania and New York.
They were concerned after they showed a
decrease in slot machine revenues, but
it seems that their concerns may have
been unfounded. But now with them going
smoke free, and the other states
allowing smoking in their casinos, this
could take away the small profit that
the city experienced last month.
Up until now, Atlantic City had received
an exception stating that their casinos
were the only place in the state that
did not have to be smoke free indoors.
The casinos were happy with the
exception, but their employees went to
the City Council and asked for the
smoking ban to include the casinos. They
say that the amount of smoke that they
have to breathe in is excessive and
harmful to their health.
Officials made 25% smoke free, but that
wasn’t enough for the employees so now
it is 25% smoking with the rest smoke
free. Casino officials say that it is
going to be hard enough to compete with
neighboring states and their slot
machines, but to put them at a further
disadvantage is just hurting the state.
Experts say that if the casinos cannot
compete there will be less money coming
in from the casinos which will mean
higher taxes for New Jersey residents,
as well as fewer jobs. The casinos will
have to lay people off to make up for
the loss of income, something they say
those who asked for the smoking ban did
not take into consideration.
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