“The rest of Rhode Island’s hospitality industry is smoke-free - and has been for more than 17 years. “Rhode Island needs to stop gambling with the health of our casino workers!” the petition says. “We are dying in this building, everybody is getting sick, everybody is paying for medicine, and you don’t care because you don’t work here.”īaker said she and others have launched a Rhode Island chapter of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), and the American Heart Association has an online petition. “I can’t believe our government is like that,” Baker said. But now the cigarette smoke is back and so are her breathing problems, she said. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Rhode Island casinos stopped allowing smoking for nearly two years, and Baker said her health improved dramatically as a result. “He is gambling with our lives,” she said of Ruggerio. “In fact, non-smoking properties appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.”īaker said no ventilation system can ensure the safety of workers if smoking is allowed. “Data from multiple jurisdictions clearly indicates that banning smoking no longer causes a dramatic drop in gaming revenue,” the report says. Twin River officials have cited studies saying casino revenue has fallen after a smoking ban, including a drop of more than 20 percent at a casino in Shreveport, Louisiana.īut Baker noted that in June, a Las Vegas-based consulting company, C3 Gaming, issued a report questioning the long-held assumption that banning smoking would drive away customers and result in big financial losses. Ruggerio said people who work at the two Rhode Island casinos took those jobs knowing that smoking was allowed in parts of those facilities.Īlso, he said, “If you get rid of smoking over there, you will lose half the customers, without a doubt.” The smoke just sits there, and they are going to fix that.”ĭoyle said, “It’s been our practice to accommodate smokers and nonsmokers in our Rhode Island casinos, and we hope to be able to continue to do that in the new year.” I’ve been in that place on numerous occasions.

“They are doing something with the ventilation not only in that area but in the upper area. “They are going to do something with that new section,” Ruggerio said. Bally’s spokesperson Patti Doyle said the first floor expansion will be complete in the first quarter of 2023.

Earlier this year, Twin River officials told legislators that an expansion in Lincoln would include the same under-floor ventilation system used at the Tiverton casino, and a first floor area with table games and video lottery terminals would become smoke-free.

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