The smoke-filled casino might be a staple of TV and movies, but for many casino employees, it’s something less than glamorous.
“I have allergic reactions to, like, the cigars,” said Jonathan Cramer, of Springdale, a table-games dealer at Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino. “There are still days when the smoke comes over, and it sounds like I am trying to cough up a lung.”
Alicia Monahan, another table-games dealer at Rivers, said she had fainted twice because of the smoke.
“I love my job,” said Monahan, who lives in Youngwood. “I just would like it to be safer.”
Monahan and Cramer were among the dozen or so Rivers employees who rallied Thursday on the riverfront behind the gambling destination in support of a bill that would end smoking in casinos statewide.
The bill’s lead sponsor is state Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from Squirrel Hill, who said it would end casinos’ exemption from the 2008 law that banned smoking in public. Frankel said secondhand smoke poses an unacceptable risk to casino employees.
“They shouldn’t have to choose between their health and a good job,” he said at the rally.
“We want to get this bill passed to save lives,” said Jennifer Rubolino, a table-games dealer from Robinson.
The event was organized by Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), a group that formed after indoor smoking — effectively banned nationally during the early days of the pandemic — returned to Atlantic City, N.J., in July 2021.
The rally was timed to coincide with a three-day meeting of the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States, taking place this week at Rivers Casino.
Other speakers at the rally included Wence Valentin III, of United Auto Workers Region 9. The UAW represents casino workers in a number of states, though not at Rivers Casino. In April, the union sued New Jersey to end the exemption for casinos in the state’s smoking ban.
About 20 states, including New York, Ohio and Maryland, now ban smoking in casinos, as do many Native American tribes that operate casinos.
At least one Pennsylvania casino — the state’s highest-grossing — has voluntarily banned smoking: the PARX Casino, near Philadelphia.
At the rally, Frankel recalled the state's 2008 clean-air law, which was fought by the restaurant and bar industry. Frankel said he had proposed removing the casino exemption previously, but the casino industry remained opposed.
The American Gaming Association, a trade group, did not respond by press time to a message seeking comment on his bill.
Reached for comment, Rivers spokesperson Jack Horner noted that the casino has designated smoking and nonsmoking areas, the latter including its restaurants.
“Decisions about smoking in Pennsylvania's casinos are made by the State Legislature, and Rivers will, of course, comply with whatever the Commonwealth mandates," Horner added.
Pennsylvania has 17 casinos, including four in southwestern Pennsylvania. In 2023, they collected more than $3.4 billion in revenue from slot machines and table games statewide.
While some casino operators have said they fear banning smoking would hurt their bottom lines, some studies have suggested that banning smoking does not reduce casinos’ revenue.
In an October 2021 interview in Play NJ, AGA president Bill Miller said the AGA does not have an official position on smoking. He said the future of smoking in casinos was “up to the individual states and even the individual localities, and frankly, the individual properties. … But we’ve already seen some properties make decisions around smoking, post-COVID, that they were forced to make during COVID, and without detrimental effects.”
