Nearly 8 in 10 Say They’d Be More Likely to Visit a Smokefree Casino
“Every Candidate Running for Office in 2025 in New Jersey — Including Incumbents — Should Take Note and Get On Board With Finally Protecting Thousands of Casino Workers’ Health”
Atlantic City, NJ — With just two months until New Jersey’s primaries, a new poll of likely 2025 South Jersey voters finds overwhelming support — 83% — for bipartisan legislation to finally close the casino smoking loophole in state law. The survey — read the full memo here — also found that:
“New Jersey candidates and leaders looking for a winning issue — over 80% approval is rare — should make their support for protecting Atlantic City casino workers from dangerous secondhand smoke known loudly and clearly ahead of the primary,” said Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. “Voters will reward them if they do. Governor Murphy has a chance to fulfill his promise and leave a legacy of saving the lives of New Jersey casino workers. If he won’t do more to get this bill to his desk, Murphy risks a tarnished legacy, allowing the next governor to rightly claim the honor of protecting these vulnerable workers.”
“Not only do South Jersey voters overwhelmingly support legislation to end smoking in New Jersey casinos — they do so with an intensity we rarely see in our polling,” said Jill Normington, partner at Normington Petts, who conducted the poll and found that 58% of voters strongly support the legislation. “A clear majority will also view the governor more favorably if he signs such a bill into law. State legislators will also be viewed more favorably if they support the legislation.”
“Every candidate running for office in 2025 in New Jersey — including incumbents — should take note and get on board with finally protecting thousands of us casino workers from this poison we breathe every day,” said Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE). “This isn’t just statistics on a page — this is our lives, our lungs, our futures. We’ve sat in doctors’ offices getting diagnoses no one should have to hear because the law allows secondhand smoke where we work. Voters are standing with us — now it’s time for lawmakers to stop putting our lives on hold and finally end this injustice. We’ve waited long enough.”
In the 6th Legislative District — represented by Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald — as well as the 4th Legislative District, the poll shows 74% of likely 2025 voters would view their representative more favorably if they voted for legislation to close the casino smoking loophole. Last fall, smokefree advocates including CEASE criticized Greenwald’s comments prioritizing unfounded potential job losses over worker health and suggesting compromises instead of supporting existing legislation. Discussion about “compromise” legislation has served merely to stall consideration of the bill already under consideration in the legislature that would close the smoking loophole.
“Lawmakers who ignore their voters are putting special interests first and jeopardizing the lives of thousands of their fellow New Jerseyans,” said Kevin O’Flaherty, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “New Jersey leaders must act now to protect casino workers in Atlantic City.”
Background
Polling has consistently found strong, bipartisan support for ending smoking in casinos — and that making such a change would attract more visitors to them. A December 2023 poll of Philadelphia area adults living in Pennsylvania and New Jersey found that nearly three-in-four adults (74%) say they’re more likely to visit an entirely smokefree casino. An American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) survey from November 2021 found overwhelming support for smoke-free casinos in New Jersey, with voters backing closing the casino smoking loophole by a 2-1 margin. A Nevada poll last year showed that, even in the casino industry epicenter, nearly 60% of Nevada voters support ending smoking in casinos. Parx Casino, just north of Philadelphia, is the closest smokefree option for those who prefer a smokefree indoor environment, and the casino continues to thrive since voluntarily ending indoor smoking nearly five years ago. The company has saved on health insurance costs for employees and other expenses, while seeing employee satisfaction increase and sick days decrease.
Methodology
The online survey was conducted among 400 adults in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer, and Salem counties. Interviews were conducted April 3-8, 2025. The sampling error for this survey is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. The poll was commissioned by a coalition of public health non-profit organizations.
Download the PDF one pager of all the poll statistics here
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Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for over 45 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit https://nonsmokersrights.org.
