Litigation is
an economic liability for smoking-permitted gaming venues
by Regina
Carlson, Executive Director
3 February 2006
Courts
in the U.S. and around the world are increasingly issuing
decisions to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and
to award damages to injured nonsmokers. Plaintiffs who are
winning in these suits include employees, patrons, tenants,
even prisoners. One of the first such cases was in New Jersey,
Shimp vs. NJ Bell (1976), in which an employee won a permanent
injunction guaranteeing her a smokefree workplace.
Casino
workers who brought a class action lawsuit against the Kenner
casino in Louisiana in 2002 recently won a $2.6 million settlement.
Several Canadian employees have won lawsuits against casinos
because of secondhand smoke in their work environment, and
an employee of Napoleon's Casino in London settled for almost
$100,000 in 2004.
Lawsuits
filed by patrons, including claims under the ADA, were a factor
in the creation of smokefree policies by major U.S. chain
restaurants.
Employers
and proprietors of public places often say they would never
ignore a loose carpet in their facility or serve a drink in
a chipped glass. Yet proprietors of smoking-permitted gaming
sites are knowingly exposing employees and patrons to air
polluted with a Class A carcinogen.
This page
updated November 9, 2006
|
