Once again the idea of smoking in casinos has come to a head with the inclusion of a court case. This time a dealer from Caesars Palace Casino on the lost Vegas strip is now suing the company Harrah’s entertainment or been subjected to secondhand smoke.
Now that the case is filed the attorney for Tomo Stephens is gathering sources for a class action lawsuit against the casino. Tomo was a former blackjack dealer at Caesars Palace Casino and is fighting the case to find smoking areas for casino employees.
“The point of this lawsuit is not to ban smoking in casinos,” said Jay Edelson, a Chicago-based attorney who filed the action. “The real goal is to change what they’re doing. At least offer areas that are nonsmoking where employees can circle in and out. We are not trying to stop smokers from gambling.”
The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in lost Vegas, Harrah’s is not only taking away the non-smoking sections of the casino they are also encouraging players to smoke while gambling. In the past years a multi-casino study was performed to determine the secondhand smoke in the bloodstreams of people who were exposed to it.
According to the study done on three casinos, when smoke exists on the casino floors it also will exist in the bloodstreams of the casino employees through secondhand smoke. “We are not asking that Caesar’s Palace become smoke-free,” Edelson said. “They must take steps to protect the health of their employees. That’s reasonable and it’s humane.”
Stephens is fighting the lawsuit after long-term exposure to secondhand smoke throughout her career. She was then forced to quit her job in June and diagnosed by a physician as having pre-cancerous cells in her stomach. The physician therefore told her that she needed to remove herself from the casinos and further exposure to secondhand smoke.
