After years of lobbying but little action, a proposed law that would completely ban smoking in Atlantic City casinos will get a spotlight in Trenton on Monday.
State lawmakers will hold the first public hearing on the bipartisan bill, which would close a 17-year loophole that has allowed casinos to have smoking sections even after the Garden State banned smoking in most indoor spaces in 2006. It would also bar smoking in simulcast facilities.
There won’t be a vote on the proposal at the 1 p.m. hearing hosted by the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. Instead, the event will be “discussion only,” said Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, the panel’s chairman and the measure’s main sponsor.
