Farinelli said he had lung cancer and a heart attack, but “I’m still here fighting today so I can work in a healthy environment.”
He said he had just taken a selfie with a “no smoking” sign in the State House, and he asked why legislators get to enjoy a smoke-free workplace while casino workers do not.
“It’s a question of fairness,” Farinelli said. “ Second-hand smoke obviously causes respiratory diseases. We all suffer — nose running, eyes itchy. It’s every day. It’s terrible.”
Advocates had viewed the late Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio as the main reason smoking is still allowed in Rhode Island’s casinos. After Ruggerio’s death on April 21, they are hoping that, after years of fruitless lobbying, the General Assembly will pass legislation banning smoking at Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino and Bally’s Tiverton Casino.
But new Senate Majority Leader Frank A. Ciccone III has said he shares Ruggerio’s concerns that the state would lose significant revenue if it ends the casinos’ exemption from Rhode Island’s 2005 indoor smoking ban. And he said he has been talking to Bally’s and union officials for at least four months “to try to find some common agreement, some happy medium.”
Ciccone, a Providence Democrat, has said Bally’s has projected it could lose $15 million to $30 million if smoking is banned in all parts of the casinos. He said it would be difficult for the state, which generates revenue from the state-licensed casinos, to fill that gap in a tough budget year.
But workers at Tuesday’s rally said Ciccone has it all wrong. “ Smoke-free casinos are more profitable than casinos that allow smoking indoors,” said William DelSanto, a Twin River table games dealer.
He cited the Parx Casino in Pennsylvania and the Park MGM Las Vegas casino, as well as the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut.
“Only 20 percent of people smoke,” DelSanto said. “That means 80 percent don’t. You’re catering to 20 percent of people? That doesn’t even make sense.”
Speakers at the rally were adamant that any negotiated agreement would be unacceptable if it only limited and did not end smoking in casinos. They held signs that read, “100% smoke-free,” “90% is not enough,” “No compromise,” and “No safe level of exposure.”
State Representative Teresa A. Tanzi, a Narragansett Democrat who has introduced a bill in the House to ban smoking in casinos, kicked off the rally, and said, “ We’re here today because for the last 20 years there has been a grave injustice happening in our casinos.”
Rhode Island passed the indoor smoking ban in 2005 to protect workers from carcinogens, Tanzi said. “There’s only one group of people in this whole state that are left behind,” she said standing in front of a group of casino workers. “It’s these people.”
Senator V. Susan Sosnowski, a South Kingstown Democrat who has sponsored the Senate version of that bill, did not attend the rally.
Vanessa Baker, founder and leader of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) Rhode Island, said it was not right to exclude casinos from the indoor smoking ban in 2005.
“And it’s not right now,” she said. “No smoking means no smoking anywhere — 100 percent. No smoking is the only way that we can protect the workers and our customers.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
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