I’m a dealer in a Las Vegas casino. Just because we work in a casino doesn’t mean we should be forced to breathe in the second-hand smoke from gamblers. They need to know how miserable they make life for us while we’re working.

We can’t walk away from our tables. We are held captive, breathing in their cigarette smoke. Gamblers could be on a game for an hour or more, so we have no choice but to breathe in their smoke. If we said anything, we would be fired and other dealers easily would take our place. I know dealers who smoke themselves, and they don’t even like working a game that has smokers. The tobacco industry furthers the myth that if casinos turned into no-smoking environments, they would go broke. It’s a myth because the poker rooms have turned into no-smoking rooms, and their business is going like gangbusters. Only 13 to 17 per cent of gamblers smoke. The airlines and restaurants in certain locations have gone “no smoking”. How do we get the casinos to consider it?

THE decision is a bottom-line determination by the casinos, regardless of the proof that secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer, as well as other heart and lung health problems.

First, discreetly develop a network of dealers and other casino workers who would prefer a smoke-free work environment. Then make contact with the various charitable organisations – the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and local charities – that can work together to organise a smoke-free environment campaign. You can’t fight the battle alone, but with the help plus survey statistics on your side, you may be successful in creating a work environment from which even the gamblers benefit.