NJ Secondhand Smoke Suit Settled for 4.5M
Former NJ casino dealer who said secondhand smoke caused cancer settles lawsuit for $4.5M
By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. December 3, 2010 (AP)
A former casino employee who said his lung cancer
was caused by 25 years of exposure to secondhand
smoke at work has settled a lawsuit against his ex-
employer for $4.5 million.
Vince Rennich's lawsuit against the Tropicana Casino
and Resort in Atlantic City became a rallying cry for
the ultimately unsuccessful effort to ban smoking in
the nation's second-largest gambling market.
"I wanted to have smoking stopped in the casinos;
that was my goal," Rennich, of Somers Point, told The
Associated Press on Friday. "It was never about
money."
Rennich now works at Dover Downs, a smoke-free
casino in Delaware. He says the atmosphere there is
much better than Atlantic City, where smoking is
allowed on 25 percent of the casino floor.
"I've been there six months and it's a pleasure," he
said. "A lot of the guys from Atlantic City came down
there to work because they couldn't stand the smoke."
The Tropicana declined to comment, noting that the
2006 lawsuit was filed before the current ownership
took control of the casino. The lawsuit was settled in
September.
The 52-year-old Rennich learned of his cancer in
2005 when he was hospitalized after a car accident.
He had one-third of his right lung removed in
September of that year, and says he is feeling well
nowadays.
Rennich says he has never smoked a cigarette in his
life.
He became one of the most visible faces of the
movement to ban smoking in Atlantic City's 11
casinos in 2007 and 2008. The city was on the verge
of banning smoking, but relented when the economy
crashed and casinos worried about losing even more
of their business to neighboring states that allow
gamblers to smoke.
A compromise under which smoking is banned from
75 percent of the casino floor but allowed on the
remaining 25 percent seems to have satisfied no one,
but it has been in effect for nearly two years.
Karen Blumenfeld, executive director of the anti-
smoking group Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy,
said the settlement should be a wake-up call for the
casino industry.
"This settlement is the least they can do, having put
his life at risk and created this extremely hazardous
condition that led to his lung cancer," she said. "It's a
long time coming."
Blumenfeld also said Rennich's case should be a
catalyst to removing a casino exemption from New
Jersey's law that bans smoking inside all other public
buildings.
In 2000, Kam Wong, a dealer who had worked for the
Claridge Casino Hotel for 10 years, was awarded
$150,000 from a workers' compensation claim for
lost wages and medical expenses because of
secondhand smoke exposure that contributed to her
lung cancer. One of her lungs had to be removed.
"The gaming industry has knowingly harmed the
health of their employees and patrons," said
Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Smoke-Free
Gaming of America. "They tell their employees the air
is safe and the ventilation is sufficient. And yet, their
employees are sick and dying from the toxic, smoke-
filled air. The casinos are going to be held
accountable and it's going to cost them."
For the time being at least, Rennich plans to continue
working at Dover Downs as a pit boss.
"I like what I'm doing down there," he said. "My goal
was always to work in a smoke-free casino, and that's
finally what I'm doing. Right now I'm pretty happy
with my life. I'm happy just to be alive, actually."
