Advocates viewed the late Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio as the main reason that smoking is still allowed in Rhode Island’s casinos.
So following Ruggerio’s death on April 21, advocates are hoping that, after years of fruitless lobbying, the General Assembly will pass legislation banning smoking at Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino and Bally’s Tiverton Casino.
“He was the obstacle,” said Vanessa Baker, founder and leader of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) Rhode Island. “Hopefully, they will allow a vote to stop the cruelty of the inhumane working conditions that we have.”
But the Senate’s new Democratic majority leader, Frank A. Ciccone III, on Wednesday said he shares Ruggerio’s concerns that the state would lose significant revenue if it the state ends the casinos’ exemption from Rhode Island’s 2005 indoor smoking ban.
