Well, They Blew Up The Chicken Man In Philly Last Night. Now, Okay, No, They Didn’t.

While speaking with anti-smoking advocates who had helped push through a New Jersey-wide smoking ban, state Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said he had fined various casinos for violating the smoking ban.

Although smoking is permitted on gambling floors in Jersey — although Atlantic City Council recently passed a local ordinance restricting smoking to just one-quarter of the gambling spaces — it’s not allowed in restaurants and other non-gambling casino areas.

The only problem with Jacobs’ assertion, though, is that it happened to be not true at all. In actuality, zero casinos have been fined for violating the smoking ban! Jacobs says he “told the truth” and he told an aide to direct the AC Health Dept. to issue the citations and it didn’t follow through.

Of course:

But Ronald Cash, director of the Atlantic City Health Department, insisted his staff had never heard from anyone from Jacobs’ office about fining casinos. “We have not gotten any calls about fining the casinos,” Cash said. “When we get a complaint, we respond to them. At this point, we have not had enough evidence to produce citations against anybody.”

Who will win this bureaucratic showdown? The Health Comissioner or the AC Health Department! I don’t know, but I bet it will take a lot of paperwork to find a winner.

Smoking ban celebrated, but casinos draw activists’ notice [Camden Courier-Post]