October 5, 2021

Press Conference with NV & NJ Advocates & Employees to Follow Gov. Sisolak Keynote, Highlight How Smoking Harms a Largely Black, Brown and Female Workforce

Contact: press@no-smoke.org

Please RSVP to chris@moyerstrategies.com

Las Vegas, NV — At the biggest gaming event of the year, casino workers and advocates from Nevada and New Jersey will speak out against indoor smoking at casinos so that they no longer have to choose between their health and a paycheck. They will hold a press conference TODAY, Tuesday, October 5 at 10:15am at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) and be joined by Reno-based Christine Thompson, who leads Smokefree Truckee Meadows, and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights President and CEO Cynthia Hallett.

They will highlight how indoor smoking disproportionately hurts the largely Black, brown and female workforce that makes up a majority of frontline casino workers–dealers, servers, table game supervisors and more–while gaming executives work in smokefree offices. While Governor Sisolak has ignored calls to require casino guests to smoke outdoors, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he’ll sign legislation to close the casino loophole and make Atlantic City casinos permanently smokefree indoors–which could happen as soon in the upcoming lame duck legislative session.

Since the start of the pandemic, more and more casinos nationwide have gone smokefree, including Park MGM on the Las Vegas strip. At least 160 sovereign Tribal gaming venues have implemented 100% smokefree policies during COVID-19, nearly half of all states require commercial casinos to be smokefree indoors, and nearly 1,100 gaming properties do not permit smoking indoors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in March that smokefreee casino policies implemented over the last year have been a “silver lining” of the pandemic.


WHO:
Frontline casino workers
Christine Thompson, Project Manager, Smoke Free Truckee Meadows
Cynthia Hallett, President & CEO, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights


WHAT:
Casino workers to speak out against smoking

WHEN:
TODAY, Tuesday, October 5
10:15am

WHERE:
At Global Gaming Expo (G2E)
The Venetian Expo, Casanova 503
201 Sands Ave,
Las Vegas, NV 89169

RSVP:
Email Chris Moyer at chris@moyerstrategies.com.


ABOUT AMERICANS FOR NONSMOKERS’ RIGHTS 
Americans for Nonsmoker’s Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for 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://no-smoke.org/ and https://smokefreecasinos.org/.

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