According to the Courier-Post of New Jersey, officials in Atlantic City, N.J., are likely to consider delaying a full casino smoking ban slated to take effect on Oct. 15.
The delay request, the paper says, was leveled by casino executive in the wake of a struggling economy, competition in Pennsylvania and New York and plunging casino revenues.
Last February, the City Council of Atlantic City voted 6 to 3 in favor of a measure prohibiting smoking on 75 percent of a casino floor. The remaining 25 percent was to be set aside as a smoking area.
"It will have a huge devastating effect," Donald Trump, chairman of Trump Entertainment Resorts, owner of Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza and Trump Marina, told the paper. "The smoking ban will have a far bigger impact than the casinos in Pennsylvania have."