The New Jersey Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee is omitting bill A2143 from its agenda for Thursday’s meeting, which would close the smoking loophole inside Atlantic City casinos. Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) is calling out Committee Chair William Moen for his inaction on the bill.
Moen introduced a bill that would ban smoking back in January 2024, but has not moved it since. CEASE is fed up with the lack of action. Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of CEASE and longtime Atlantic City casino worker, said in a statement emailed to PlayNJ:
“It’s been over a year since A2143 was introduced to the Assembly Tourism, Gaming and Arts Committee, and still, Chair Moen has done nothing to move the process along.”
CEASE believes bill has enough
There are of the New Jersey legislature that is in favor of eliminating smoking inside Atlantic City casinos. The bill Moen introduced has 41 cosponsors.
CEASE also referenced a study conducted by Normington Petts, a polling and campaign strategy company. The company polled 400 likely voters in South Jersey, in which 83% are in favor a proposed law ending indoor smoking in all workplaces, including casinos.
The study also showed that 79% of voters would view state legislation more favorably if the bill was ed. Naccarelli questioned the reasoning for the inaction, even if it comes with a favorable outcome with voters:
“There are enough votes to the bill out of the committee, and a majority of Assembly are cosponsors or ers. 79% of South Jersey voters said they would view their state legislator more favorably if they voted to the law.
“But Assemblyman Moen, despite being the chair of this committee and the primary sponsor of this bill, refuses to use his power to our fight.”
Silence is not an answer
Moen has been called out before because of a lack of movement on the bill he introduced. Dan Vicente, UAW Region 9 Director, did so last September in a ruled against casino workers.
This time, Naccarelli is demanding an answer of some kind. He continued:
“Chair Moen needs to make a decision: If he is the reason there hasn’t been a vote, he owes casino workers and his constituents an explanation. If he is being held up by state leadership, he needs to publicly call them out and demand that they allow the vote to proceed.
“Either way, silence is not an option. When will Chair Moen decide that enough is enough?”
Without Moen’s blessing, it becomes unclear when the bill will be up for discussion again. However, CEASE will keep fighting until it is.
