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Atlantic City: Former New Jersey health officials call on state to ban smoking in casinos

April 10, 2026 · 3:21pm ET | 12:21pm PT
Photo: Shutterstock
  • Wayne Parry, The Press of Atlantic City

Two former high-ranking officials with the New Jersey Department of Health are calling on the state to ban smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos, calling it the biggest “unfinished piece” of a policy to protect people from secondhand smoke.

In an op-ed article published Thursday in NJ Spotlight News, Doctors Eddy Bresnitz and Fred Jacobs called on the state to close a loophole in the state’s Smoke-Free Air law, whose 20th anniversary will arrive next week.

The pulmonary physicians were in office when the smoking law took effect in 2006 and oversaw the state’s tobacco control programs.

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The law specifically exempted casinos from indoor smoking bans that applied to virtually all other workplaces in the state.