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There also is opposition to expanding gambling outside of Atlantic City, the poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University found. The survey was released on Thursday, Nov. 10.
Atlantic City casinos have been grappling with the issue of smoking on the gaming floors. Smoking was banned in most indoor areas in New Jersey in 2006, but exceptions were made for casinos, cigar bars and a few other types of businesses, and today Atlantic City casinos allow smoking in about one-quarter of their gaming areas.
The state legislature has been considering a bill to ban smoking in casinos altogether, but casinos have argued that it would reduce their business, which has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and led to layoffs.
Most New Jersey residents (57 percent) support the status quo on smoking in casinos, in which smoking is allowed only in certain designated areas. Twenty-nine percent support a complete ban on smoking in casinos, and 12 percent say that smoking should be allowed anywhere in a casino. These figures are not much changed from when the question was asked 13 years ago, in 2009: then, 35 percent of New Jersey residents said that it should be banned entirely, with 47 percent saying that it should be limited to certain areas.
“This is a balancing act,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of Government and Politics at FDU, and the executive director of the poll. “Smoking bans protect workers from secondhand smoke, but no one wants to risk hurting the casino’s bottom lines and having to bail out Atlantic City. Again.”
Just 37 percent of New Jersey residents say that they favor expanding casino gambling outside of Atlantic City, with a bare majority, 51 percent, saying that they oppose such an expansion. Opposition to casino expansion may be one of the few remaining bipartisan issues in the state: 50 percent of Democrats oppose it, along with 54 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of independents.
Any expansion of casinos would require a vote on a constitutional amendment in the state; in 2016, such an amendment failed, 77 to 23.
“Competition from new casinos opening soon in New York City and the endless search for new sources of revenue mean that there’s a lot of pressure to open new casinos in Jersey," Cassino said. “But if the state wants those casinos, they’re going to have to change a lot of minds.”
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