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She helped the world make sense of Atlantic City at New Jersey think tank that studies gambling

Saturday, June 20, 2026 2:32 PM
Image aggregated from The Press of Atlantic City.
  • Wayne Parry, The Press of Atlantic City

The email was blunt, to the point — and devastating.

It came from a casino executive unhappy with something Jane Bokunewicz had said as part of her job analyzing the Atlantic City casino market for Stockton University’s Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism.

As faculty director, Bokunewicz had opined that casino customers might be more accustomed to gambling in a non-smoking environment after about a year of a smoking ban due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was a reasonable opinion based on circumstances at the time. But it made one casino executive livid, because it was not in line with the industry’s talking points in the ongoing battle over whether smoking should continue to be allowed in Atlantic City’s nine casinos.