50 Stories for 50 Years: The Power of CEASE

How Casino Workers Are Fighting For Their Right to Smokefree Air

For the past 50 years, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) has fought for the radical yet fundamental idea that every single person has the right to breathe clean air. In most industries, that battle was won long ago. But across the country, a massive loophole in public health laws leaves casino employees behind without the basic workplace protections that most of us enjoy.

Over the past 5 years, ANR has been working with Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) to close the loophole in New Jersey’s Clean Indoor Act and extend smokefree protections to casino workers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the state issued a temporary moratorium on smoking in casinos, which led to a noticeable improvement in the health and quality of life of casino workers—and proved that smokefree gaming was possible in Atlantic City. When this restriction was lifted and workers were once again made vulnerable to the harms of secondhand smoke, casino workers said enough. 

What started as a grassroots outcry in Atlantic City quickly transformed into CEASE—a powerful, multi-state, worker-led movement that is fundamentally redefining the fight for smokefree air as a fight for basic workers’ rights.

Forced to Choose Between Their Health and a Paycheck

For years, casino workers have been faced with an impossible choice: protect your health or provide for your family. For Nicole Vitola, Pete Naccarelli, and Lamont White—longtime Atlantic City casino workers and co-founders of CEASE—this compromise took its toll.

As a table games dealer, Nicole had to stand at a table and inhale secondhand smoke day in and day out—all while pregnant.

As a casino worker, I am forced to inhale secondhand smoke every day, even while I was pregnant. I couldn’t turn away or move to protect myself and my unborn children. It wasn’t just my health on the line — I was putting my kids in harm’s way, day in and day out. It’s an unimaginable situation, but this is the reality for thousands of us who work in casinos. Casino jobs are good-paying jobs, and many of us like working here, but we shouldn’t have to risk our health and the health of our families just to make a living.

Nicole, like many others, was aware of the irony of the casino industry: she relied heavily on her job and the healthcare that came with it to protect her growing family. But she simultaneously felt trapped in a job that forced her to breathe in toxic air that could harm her and her pregnancy.

Pete knows this fear intimately. He walks into work at the casino each day knowing the damage the secondhand smoke exposure will inflict — a reality made heavier by the emotional toll it takes on his loved ones.

It’s heartbreaking to hear your son worry about you day in and day out. No parent should have to see their child scared for their health simply because of where they work. I do this job so that I can provide for my family, put a roof over their heads, and give them the best life possible. But it’s becoming harder to do that when my health — and the health of so many others — is constantly at risk from secondhand smoke. Every day, I walk into a job that could be slowly killing me, and it’s terrifying to think that I might not be there to watch my kids grow up. No job should come at the cost of your life.

Lamont has experienced the damaging health effects of secondhand smoke firsthand, and has seen countless colleagues and loved ones struggle in the casino’s toxic environment. But it was seeing the impact on his family that underscored for Lamont just how unsustainable his working conditions were. 

As a grandfather and longtime employee at the Borgata in Atlantic City, I’ve seen firsthand the numerous co-workers that have fallen ill or suffered from the effects of secondhand smoke. The thought of my granddaughter Ayana worrying about my well-being every single day, it’s a weight I carry with me constantly. All I want is to see my grandkids grow up, enjoying each of their milestones. It’s time for New Jersey legislators to close the casino smoking loophole and protect workers like me and our families.

The Birth of CEASE: A Nationwide Worker-Led Movement

Driven by the love for their families and a refusal to sacrifice their health for a paycheck, Nicole, Pete, and Lamont built a coalition that has shaken up the gaming industry and inspired thousands of workers across the country. 

After the Covid-era restriction on indoor casino smoking in Atlantic City was lifted in 2021, Nicole, Pete, and Lamont began speaking out and formed CEASE. CEASE NJ has mobilized workers, advocates, and even casino patrons, bringing the fight to the airwaves, the streets, and the halls of the New Jersey Capitol. The movement has since grown to 3,000 members. 

What began as a local movement among Atlantic City dealers quickly reached casino workers nationwide who felt equally abandoned by state smokefree laws. Recognizing that their struggle was universal, Pete, Nicole, and Lamont partnered closely with ANR to share their message and methods with workers in other states with casino smoking loopholes. Today, the worker-led movement has established chapters in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.

Elevating Workers’ Rights During ANR’s 50th Anniversary

As ANR celebrates its 50th anniversary, the progress in health equity and workers’ rights that the organization has witnessed stands as a testament to what grassroots organizing can achieve. But as long as even part of the U.S. population remains unprotected by comprehensive smokefree laws, the job is not done.

Through social media, legislative testimony, rallies, and an unbreakable national coalition of workers, Nicole Vitola, Pete Naccarelli, Lamont White, and the thousands of members of CEASE are fighting to ensure that casino workers will no longer be treated as second-class citizens. CEASE’s growing support across the country is a reminder that ANR’s work is not just a fight for public health — it is a fight for fundamental workers’ rights and workplace safety.