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Smoking ban adds to Atlantic's woes
A month after a smoking ban came into force, gamblers can now smoke again in Atlantic City's 11 casinos.
Following a decline in casino slot revenues around 20 percent that followed the October smoking ban, the City Council suspended the ban, which will be reviewed in a year.
Trump Entertainment, which operates three casinos in Atlantic City, cited the smoking ban alongside a slowdown in consumer spending and increased competition from slot halls in neighbouring states, where partial rather than total smoking bans are in place, as contributing factors to its recent poor results, which led the company to announce it would not make a $53.1 million interest payment scheduled for December 1st.
Mark Juliano, CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts, argued at the time the ban was proposed that it would accelerate the general decline in revenues, that jobs would be lost, and that operators would find it too expensive to build ventilated smoking rooms. He said that money would be wasted if such rooms were subsequently banned.
