Lighting Up Again In Atlantic City Casinos

Smokers are once again lighting up at Atlantic City's 11 casinos after a month of being prohibited from doing so under council laws.

The city passed a complete smoking ban last April, just before Atlantic City felt thefull impact of the economy and business began to decrease. Under the ban, the casinos could set up separate smoking areas, like those seen in airports and shopping malls around the world.

As a result of the difficult times, the council changed its mind, but there was no way to legally stop the new laws from being implemented on October 15, hence the one-month wait until the law's expiration before smoking was once again permitted.

Atlantic City casinos suffered a 9.9 percent decline in revenues to $346.2 million this October when compared to a year ago.

An 8 percent decline and thousands of job losses have been predicted by the end of 2008, damage the council obviously hopes will be lessened by its backtracking on the smoking laws.

This will be the second successive year of economic decline in the New Jersey gambling haven, after 28 straight years of gains.

The ban has now been repealed for at least one year.