State lawmakers will hold the first public hearing on the bipartisan bill, which would close a 17-year loophole that has allowed casinos to have smoking sections even after the Garden State banned smoking in most indoor spaces in 2006. It would also bar smoking inside simulcast facilities.

There won’t be a vote on the proposal at the 1 p.m. hearing hosted by the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. Instead, the event will be “discussion only,” said Sen. Joe Vitale, D-Middlesex, the panel’s chairman and the measure’s main sponsor.

Vitale said the goal is to give those affected by the legislation — especially casino workers and the casino industry — the chance to highlight the issue in a public forum, including information from studies and details about the possible economic impact.

“It’s a very big day,” Vitale told NJ Advance Media. “It’s a long time coming. I know this legislation will eventually pass. This is an important step along the way.”

Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Middlesex, told NJ Advance Media last week there’s still no set date for when a vote on the measure may happen.

But casino workers and anti-smoking advocates who have spent years fighting for the legislation are celebrating the hearing as a major development. They have long argued casino employees face a significant health risk because of secondhand smoke that should matter more than casinos’ bottom lines.

“This hearing means that Atlantic City casino workers are one step closer to not having to choose between their health and a paycheck,” said Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. “It’s a historic moment in the fight to protect the health of thousands of New Jersey workers.”

The Casino Association of New Jersey has long opposed the measure, saying it could drive customers who smoke to gamble in other states, thus hurting casinos’ profits, leading to layoffs, and damaging Atlantic City’s economy, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Vitale said it’s unknown whether representatives from casinos will attend the hearing. The casino association did not respond to a message seeking comment.

This is all part of a larger reckoning on smoking in northeast casinos. There are similar pushes for bans in neighboring Pennsylvania, as well as Rhode Island and Virginia. Four casinos are voluntarily smoke-free in Pennsylvania, including the new Parx in Shippensburg. Every casino in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and New York don’t allow smoking.

New Jersey barred smoking inside bars, restaurants, and other public places with the Clean Air Act in 2006, but the law included a provision that allowing casinos to permit smoking on 25% of their floors. Vitale said that was the only way for the law to pass at the time, although he quickly introduced this bill to end that exemption.

It largely languished in the following years. But the issue gained steam in the last two years after Gov. Phil Murphy temporarily barred smoking in casinos during COVID-19 and after state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, a South Jersey lawmaker who opposed the bill, was ousted from office.

Casino workers have lobbied incessantly for the measure

“No other group of workers in our state must deal with secondhand smoke like we do — two feet in front of our faces, without even the ability to turn our heads because we’re watching over the chips on the table,” said the group Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, or CEASE.

More than half the members in the state Senate and Assembly — from both political parties — have co-sponsored the proposed ban. That includes the legislators who represent Atlantic City. Murphy has said he would sign the measure into law if the Legislature sends it to him.

Mark Giannantonio, the chief executive of Resorts casino and president of the Casino Association, told the New York Times last year he expects a ban to be “most likely a matter of when,” but this is the wrong time to do it, because of the pandemic and the possibility of a recession.

A report commissioned in February by the Casino Association of New Jersey and conductedby independent gambling research firm Spectrum Gaming Group said a ban in Atlantic City could cost more than 2,500 casino jobs and nearly 11% of casinos’ revenue.

But supporters of the ban dispute that, and a June report from Las Vegas research firm C3 Gaming suggested a ban might not cause an exodus of customers.

“The narrative that the industry uses is just a red flag,” Vitale said. “To even have to consider the economic consequences of a smoking ban is just cynical and plain wrong.”

Casino workers support allowing smoking areas outside casinos.

A poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University last year found a majority of New Jerseyans favor limiting smoking in gambling halls to designated areas. That clashes with a survey from Stockton University earlier in the year that showed a majority support prohibiting smoking on casino floors.

It’s unclear when the bill will get a vote. Casino workers told NJ Advance Media last year they’re concerned it’s being held up because of politics, with top state lawmakers putting it off until the lame duck session in the fall, after November’s elections, when all 120 seats in the Democratic-controlled Legislature are on the ballot.

Leaders of CEASE said Scutari, the Senate president, told them the bill “depends” on the election. Scutari has said the bill likely will pass “at some point” and denied telling the workers the election has a bearing on it. He said last week that Monday’s hearing will be a “fact-finding mission.”