Casino workers protested in the Rhode Island House of Representatives this week. They urged legislators to support legislation banning smoking in casinos.
The issue has been a hot topic in other states in recent years as well. For example, following a number of appeals, a New Jersey ban reached the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, this is the fourth consecutive year Rhode Island workers supported ending the state’s casino exemption to an indoor smoking ban. According to the Rhode Island Current, about 150 casino workers from 11 unions showed up to lend their support.
“For the last 20 years, there has been a grave injustice happening in our casinos,” bill sponsor Rep. Teresa Tanzi told those in attendance. “These are our workers who are there day in, day out — they’re doing a service for our state.”
Mixed Reception To Ban
Additional legislative support buoyed supporters earlier this year. House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has signed on as a co-sponsor, but the bill has yet to reach the House floor.
A companion bill in the Senate has yet to be heard in committee and may face more opposition. Majority leader Frank Ciccone III chairs the Senate committee on labor and gaming and has been a vocal opponent of banning smoking in casinos.
Echoing concerns by some legislators and even some union workers in New Jersey, Ciccone believes a ban could cost casinos and the state millions of dollars in revenue. Bally’s operates the state’s two casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton, and the majority leader instead hopes to reach an agreement with the company for additional non-smoking areas within the properties.
“If anything looks fruitful, we’ll set up another meeting with everyone again,” he told the Current. “Hopefully we’ll get closer.”
For some union workers at the protest, that effort wouldn’t go far enough.
“The Rhode Island casinos are allowing the safety and well-being of their employees and patrons at risk and showing that their employees are expendable,” Bally’s Lincoln online gaming supervisor Vanessa Baker said.
In recent months, anti-smoking advocates have taken the fight directly to company stockholders by filing shareholder resolutions asking Wynn Resorts, Boyd Gaming, Caesars Entertainment, Bally’s Corp., and Penn Entertainment to study the economic benefits of creating smoke-free casinos.
