Assemblyman Bergen Calls on Speaker Coughlin to Prioritize Casino Workers’ Health by Advancing Long-Delayed Bill
Trenton, NJ — (Nov 13, 2024) Today, Assembly Republican Whip Brian Bergen called on Speaker Craig Coughlin to add the long-awaited smokefree casino bill (A2143) to Thursday’s Assembly Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts Committee meeting agenda, citing strong bipartisan support for the bill. The smokefree legislation aims to close a nearly two-decade loophole that still exposes casino workers to harmful secondhand smoke.
In response, Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) and a longtime casino dealer in Atlantic City, issued the following statement:
“We’re grateful to Assemblyman Bergen for standing up for casino workers and making our safety a priority. Now, we urge Speaker Coughlin to prioritize our health and safety by advancing this bill without further delay. Casino workers have waited far too long for the same protections afforded to almost every other New Jersey worker. Safe work environments and clean air are popular bipartisan issues. We’re only asking for what other New Jersey workers already have: the right to breathe clean air in our workplace. It’s time to end the double standard and give us the safe, healthy workplace we deserve.”
While the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee passed the companion bill (S1493) in January, the Assembly has yet to move it forward. The bill to end the casino smoking loophole has already garnered significant bipartisan support, with 42 sponsors in the Assembly, including 14 Republicans.
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. For more information, visit ceasesmoking.org.
Read more about smokefree casinos.
See the Real Deal Videos about CEASE.
