Employees at the Twin River Casino in Rhode Island have asked legislators to pass a bill that would ban smoking in all the state’s gaming facilities. The Laborers International Union of North American Local 271 is comprised of many casino workers statewide who want to see the ban put in place.
Representative Teresa Tanzi has sponsored a bill that would include casinos in the list of workplaces that prohibited smoking indoors. Last month, the bill was held over for further study.
Tanzi commented: “Casino workers are Rhode Islanders, parents, caregivers, taxpayers and human beings, and they deserve the same protections as everyone else in our state. It is fundamentally wrong to say that no one should be exposed secondhand smoke in the workplace but carve out an exception that leaves one group of workers not only unprotected, but in fact, bathed in smoke every day.
“There’s no excuse for continuing to endanger their health, and we need to pass this bill to let them breathe safely like everyone else.”
Tanzi’s proposal has the support of Local 271.
Both the Twin River and Tiverton casinos shut down during 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. They soon reopened with a temporary indoor smoking ban in place. Once restrictions were lifted, both casinos removed the smoking ban.
Former Twin River employee Lynn Dupre believes prolonged exposure to second-hand smoke dramatically affected her health while she was working at Twin River and at the Tiverton Casino.
Dupre took a cut in pay to work at Tiverton Casino because it had installed a new ventilation system. She thought this would help to filter out the smoke. She said that she noticed a slight difference, but the improvement did not last long.
“About six months later, after working 40 hours every week with people blowing smoke into my face, the smoke started taking its toll again, even with better ventilation,” Dupre said. “Simply put, there is absolutely no way to have a smoking casino which is not harmful to its employees’ health.”
Dupre recently quit her casino job after working there for eight years.
Massachusetts casinos and most Connecticut gaming facilities currently have an indoor smoking ban in place.
Casino workers in New Jersey have also pushed for an indoor smoking ban for all its gaming facilities. For the past two years, a group of Atlantic City dealers has been advocating for legislators to reinstate the ban. More than 2,500 casino workers have also united to demand a permanent ban.
The Office of the US Surgeon General has concluded that there is no safe level of second-hand smoke.
