Casino Industry Has Pushed a False Narrative to Avoid Protecting Workers’ Health

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2025

Contact:
ceasesmokingnj@gmail.com

Atlantic City, NJ — The Atlantic City casino industry has had its best summer in more than ten years, bringing in more than $855 million from June through August — a 5.5% increase in revenue from the same period last year. But while casinos are raking in money this summer, casino workers are still fighting for their basic right to breathe clean air in the workplace.

“In rejecting our calls to simply be able to breathe clean air at work, the casino industry has repeatedly argued that they can’t change their policies in the ‘fragile’ business environment ” said Pete Naccarelli, longtime Atlantic City table games dealer and co-founder of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE). “Despite all of the evidence to prove that eliminating smoking will not negatively impact the industry’s success, Atlantic City casinos have pushed back, telling us that their businesses simply can’t handle the possibility. But clearly, casinos are making more than enough to weather any changes. While the industry executives make millions of dollars, casino workers have to face health issues due to toxic secondhand smoke just to make a living. How is this fair?”

For years, Atlantic City casinos have clung to the outdated and false argument that eliminating smoking would drive away patrons from brick-and-mortar casinos. However, this theory has been proven false by the very researchers that the casino industry relies on — in May, Spectrum analysts noted that in Philadelphia, Atlantic City’s biggest and nearest casino market competitor, eliminating smoking from casinos even seemed to attract customers. Parx Casino in Philadelphia was the only casino in the state of Pennsylvania to remain smokefree permanently after Covid-19 smokefree regulations were lifted, and it had the best post-pandemic rebound in table games revenue among casinos in the area. Meanwhile, many states in the Northeast, including New York and Connecticut, have smokefree ordinances and thriving casinos.

Even if it were true (which it’s not) that smokefree policies would hurt business, after their best summer in a decade, Atlantic City casinos should drop the pretenses and do what’s right for workers’ health. Figures released on Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show that brick-and-mortar casinos have won more than online betting operations for the fourth month in a row. The industry’s record-setting summer was capped by a fantastic August, earning nearly $312 million in the month alone — a 6.1% increase from the year prior. If Atlantic City casinos are earning so much, why won’t they put their workers’ health above any (unlikely) revenue loss?

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Casino Employees Against Smoking (Harmful) Effects (CEASE) is a group of thousands of casino dealers and other frontline gaming workers that formed after indoor smoking returned on July 4, 2021 in Atlantic City, NJ and has expanded to states around the country. CEASE is fighting to permanently remove smoking from our workplaces.

See what casino workers say about working in secondhand smoke: the Real Deal

See what casino workers’ kids say about their moms and dads who work in secondhand smoke: kids of CEASE