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Legislation to end casino smoking died in last year’s legislative session, but has been reintroduced this year, and has garnered bipartisan support, including from a former governor, Democratic state Sen. Richard Codey.

Atlantic City briefly banned smoking for four weeks in 2008, but dissatisfied with the results, quickly restored it to the current 25% level. In the first week of the ban, casino winnings declined by 19.5%, according to casino workers union officials and state regulators.

The report asserted that between 1,021 to 2,512 jobs could be lost in the first year of a smoking ban in Atlantic City. Spectrum used data from 2019 that found that each casino job was supported by $155,008 of gambling revenue.

They also interviewed casino executives, workers and customers, and anti-smoking advocacy groups, and studied the experience of other states that have banned casino smoking.

At the high end of its projections, the report says 10% of Atlantic City’s casino workforce could lose their jobs if smoking is banned.

It also found that with a smoking ban, non-gambling revenue would fall by up to $93 million, or 6.5%, and tax revenue would fall by as much as 44%.

The report also acknowledged that some non-smoking patrons would be more likely to visit casinos if smoking was banned. But the report found that the extra business would not be enough to offset an overall decline in gambling revenue.

It does not expect every smoker to stop coming to Atlantic City’s casinos if smoking is banned. About 13% of smokers would still visit casinos, according to the report, and they also have the option of gambling online.

But that would hurt the casinos: the report says casinos keep less than 10% of online gambling revenue, with the rest going to online operators, tech partners and related costs.