[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Atlantic City as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 6-9-1993 by Ord. No. 41-1993; amended in its entirety 2-7-2007 by Ord. No. 86-2006]
The following words and phrases, whenever used in this article, shall be construed as defined in this section:
BAR
An establishment that is devoted to the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests on the premises and in which the serving of food is only incidental to the consumption of those beverages, including but not limited to taverns, nightclubs, cocktail lounges, and cabarets.
BUSINESS
A sole proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, or other business entity, either for-profit or not-for-profit, including retail establishments where goods or services are sold; professional corporations and other entities where legal, medical, dental, engineering, architectural, or other professional services are delivered; and private clubs.
EMPLOYEE
A person who is employed by an employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit, and a person who volunteers his or her services for a nonprofit entity.
EMPLOYER
A person, business, partnership, association, corporation, including a municipal corporation, trust, or nonprofit entity that employs the services of one or more individual persons.
ENCLOSED AREA
All space between a floor and ceiling that is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows (exclusive of doorways), which extend from the floor to the ceiling.
GAMING FLOOR
The area within the perimeter of any casino and any casino simulcasting facility as set forth and defined in Section 5 of the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act (N.J.S.A. 26:3D-59).
HEALTH-CARE FACILITY
An office or institution providing care or treatment of diseases, whether physical, mental, or emotional, or other medical, physiological, or psychological conditions, including but not limited to hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals or other clinics, including weight control clinics, nursing homes, homes for the aging or chronically ill, laboratories, and offices of surgeons, chiropractors, physical therapists, physicians, dentists, and all specialists within these professions. This definition shall include all waiting rooms, hallways, private rooms, semiprivate rooms, and wards within health-care facilities.
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT
An area under the control of a public or private employer that employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including but not limited to work areas, private offices, employee lounges, rest rooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, classrooms, employee cafeterias, hallways, and vehicles. A private residence is not a place of employment unless it is used as a child-care, adult day-care, or health-care facility.
PRIVATE CLUB
An organization, whether incorporated or not, which is the owner, lessee, or occupant of a building or portion thereof used exclusively for club purposes at all times, which is operated solely for a recreational, fraternal, social, patriotic, political, benevolent, or athletic purpose, but not for pecuniary gain, and which only sells alcoholic beverages incidental to its operation. The affairs and management of the organization are conducted by a board of directors, executive committee, or similar body chosen by the members at an annual meeting. The organization has established bylaws and/or a constitution to govern its activities. The organization has been granted an exemption from the payment of federal income tax as a club under 26 U.S.C. § 501.
PUBLIC PLACE
An enclosed area to which the public is invited or in which the public is permitted, including but not limited to banks, bars, educational facilities, gaming facilities, health-care facilities, hotels and motels, laundromats, public transportation facilities, reception areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing establishments, retail service establishments, retail stores, shopping malls, sports arenas, theaters, and waiting rooms. A private club is a public place when being used for a function to which the general public is invited. A private residence is not a public place unless it is used as a child-care, adult day-care, or health-care facility.
RESTAURANT
An eating establishment, including but not limited to, coffee shops, cafeterias, sandwich stands, and private and public school cafeterias, which gives or offers for sale food to the public, guests, or employees, as well as kitchens and catering facilities in which food is prepared on the premises for serving elsewhere. The term "restaurant" shall include a bar area within the restaurant.
SERVICE LINE
An indoor line in which one or more persons are waiting for or receiving service of any kind, whether or not the service involves the exchange of money.
SHOPPING MALL
An enclosed public walkway or hall area that serves to connect retail or professional establishments.
SMOKING
Inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, or other lighted tobacco product in any manner or in any form.
SPORTS ARENA
Sports pavilions, stadiums, gymnasiums, health spas, boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice rinks, bowling alleys, and other similar places where members of the general public assemble to engage in physical exercise, participate in athletic competition, or witness sports or other events.
Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places within the City of Atlantic City, including but not limited to the following places:
A. 
Aquariums, galleries, libraries, and museums.
B. 
Areas available to and customarily used by the general public in businesses and nonprofit entities patronized by the public, including but not limited to banks, laundromats, professional offices, and retail service establishments.
C. 
Bars.
D. 
Bingo facilities.
E. 
Child-care and adult day-care facilities.
F. 
Convention facilities.
G. 
Educational facilities, both public and private.
H. 
Elevators.
I. 
Gaming facilities, except as exempted under this article.
J. 
Health-care facilities.
K. 
Hotels and motels.
L. 
Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums, trailer parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes, and other multiple-unit residential facilities.
M. 
Polling places.
N. 
Private clubs when being used for a function to which the general public is invited.
O. 
Public transportation facilities, including buses, jitneys and taxicabs, and ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transit depots.
P. 
Restaurants.
Q. 
Rest rooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways, and other common-use areas.
R. 
Retail stores.
S. 
Rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings, under the control of an agency, board, commission, committee or council of the City or a political subdivision of the state, to the extent the place is subject to the jurisdiction of the City.
T. 
Service lines.
U. 
Shopping malls.
V. 
Sports arenas, including enclosed places in outdoor arenas.
W. 
Theaters and other facilities primarily used for exhibiting motion pictures, stage dramas, lectures, musical recitals, or other similar performances.
A. 
Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed facilities within places of employment without exception. This includes common work areas, auditoriums, classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, private offices, elevators, hallways, medical facilities, cafeterias, employee lounges, stairs, rest rooms, vehicles, and all other enclosed facilities.
B. 
This prohibition on smoking shall be communicated to all existing employees by the effective date of this article and to all prospective employees upon their application for employment.
[Amended 4-25-2012 by Ord. No. 35-2012]
Smoking shall be prohibited in the seating areas of all outdoor arenas, stadiums, and amphitheaters, as well as in bleachers and grandstands for use by spectators at sporting and other public events. In addition, smoking of any kind shall be and hereby is prohibited on public playgrounds, athletic fields and courts.
A. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to the contrary, the following areas shall be exempt from the provisions of §§ 221-3 and 221-4:
(1) 
Private residences, except when used as a child-care, adult day-care, or health care facility.
(2) 
Hotel and motel rooms that are rented to guests and are designated as smoking rooms; provided, however, that not more than 20% of rooms rented to guests in a hotel or motel may be so designated.
(3) 
Private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes and long-term-care facilities that are occupied by one or more persons, all of whom are smokers and have requested in writing to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted; provided that smoke from these places does not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited under the provisions of this article.
(4) 
Private clubs that have no employees, except when being used for a function to which the general public is invited. This exemption shall not apply to any organization that is established for the purpose of avoiding compliance with this article.
(5) 
Outdoor areas of places of employment except those covered by the provisions of § 221-5.
(6) 
Gaming floors within licensed casino hotel facilities; provided, however, that not more than 25% of such gaming floor, as particularly determined by the casino licensee operator of the casino hotel facility within which the gaming floor is located, may be so designated.
[Added 10-27-2008 by Ord. No. 95-2008]
B. 
On the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the ordinance amending this section,[1] Council, through its Revenue and Finance Committee, shall review this chapter and determine whether the factors then impacting the general welfare of Atlantic City residents and the Atlantic City casino industry and the employment, development, competitive and other economic conditions which affect them warrant a continuation of the provisions of Subsection A(6) or that the restrictions of Ord. No. 27-2008 should be reimplemented.
[Amended 4-23-2008 by Ord. No. 27-2008[2]; 10-27-2008 by Ord. No. 95-2008]
[1]
Editor's Note: This refers to Ord. No. 95-2008, adopted 10-27-2008.
[2]
Editor's Note: Said ordinance provided for an effective date of 10-15-2008.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, an owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of an establishment, facility, or outdoor area may declare that entire establishment, facility, or outdoor area as a nonsmoking place. Smoking shall be prohibited in any place in which a sign conforming to the requirements of § 221-8A is posted.
A. 
"No Smoking" signs or the international "No Smoking" symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly and conspicuously posted in every public place and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by this article, by the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of that place.
B. 
Every public place and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by this article shall have posted at every entrance a conspicuous sign clearly stating that smoking is prohibited.
C. 
All ashtrays shall be removed from any area where smoking is prohibited by this article by the owner, operator, manager, or other person having control of the area.
A. 
No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire, or in any manner retaliate against an employee, applicant for employment, or customer because that employee, applicant, or customer exercises any rights afforded by this article or reports or attempts to prosecute a violation of this article.
B. 
An employee who works in a setting where an employer allows smoking does not waive or otherwise surrender any legal rights the employee may have against the employer or any other party.
A. 
This article shall be enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services or the Business Administrator, or an authorized designee.
B. 
Notice of the provisions of this article shall be given to all applicants for a business license in the City of Atlantic City.
C. 
Any citizen who desires to register a complaint under this article may initiate enforcement with the Department of Health and Human Services or the Business Administrator.
D. 
The Health Department, Fire Department, or their designees shall, while an establishment is undergoing otherwise mandated inspections, inspect for compliance with this article.
E. 
An owner, manager, operator, or employee of an establishment regulated by this article shall inform persons violating this article of the appropriate provisions thereof.
F. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, an employee or private citizen may bring legal action to enforce this article.
G. 
In addition to the remedies provided by the provisions of this section, the Department of Health or the Business Administrator or any person aggrieved by the failure of the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of a public place or a place of employment to comply with the provisions of this article may apply for injunctive relief to enforce those provisions in any court of competent jurisdiction.
If any provision, clause, sentence, or paragraph of this article or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall be held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect the other provisions of this article which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this article are declared to be severable.
A. 
A person who smokes in an area where smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this article shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by a fine not exceeding $25.
B. 
A person who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls a public place or place of employment and who fails to comply with the provisions of this article shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by:
(1) 
A fine not exceeding $25 for a first violation.
(2) 
A fine not exceeding $100 for a second violation within one year.
(3) 
A fine not exceeding $200 for each additional violation within one year.
C. 
In addition to the fines established by this section, violation of this article by a person who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls a public place or place of employment may result in the suspension or revocation of any permit or license issued to the person for the premises on which the violation occurred.
D. 
Violation of this article is hereby declared to be a public nuisance, which may be abated by the Department of Health or the Business Administrator by restraining order, preliminary and permanent injection, or other means provided for by the law, and the City may take action to recover the costs of the nuisance abatement.
E. 
Each day on which a violation of this article occurs shall be considered a separate and distinct violation.
[Adopted 7-21-2021 by Ord. No. 31-2021]
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
CANNABIS, CANNABIS ITEM
Any usable cannabis, cannabis product, cannabis extract and any other cannabis resin, all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant or its seeds, but shall not include the weight of any other ingredient combined with cannabis to prepare topical or oral administrations, food, drink, or other product. "Cannabis" does not include hemp or a hemp product cultivated, handled, processed, transported, or sold pursuant to the New Jersey Hemp Farming Act, P.L. 2019, c. 238 (N.J.S.A. 4:28-6 et seq.).
ELECTRONIC SMOKING DEVICE
An electronic device that can be used to deliver nicotine or other substances to the person inhaling from the device, including, but not limited to, an electronic cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, or pipe.
INDOOR PUBLIC PLACE
A structurally enclosed place of business, commerce or other service-related activity, whether publicly or privately owned or operated on a for-profit or nonprofit basis, which is generally accessible to the public, including, but not limited to: a theater or concert hall; public library; museum or art gallery; bar; restaurant or other establishment where the principal business is the sale of food for consumption on the premises, including the bar area of the establishment; garage or parking facility; any public conveyance; any facility used for the holding of sporting events; recreational facility, shopping mall or retail store; hotel, motel or other lodging establishment; apartment building lobby or other public area in an otherwise private building.
MARIJUANA
All parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant or its seeds, except those containing resin extracted from the plant products cultivated, handled, processed, transported, or sold pursuant to the New Jersey Hemp Farming Act, P.L. 2019, c. 238 (N.J.S.A. 4:28 6 et seq.).
PUBLIC PLACE
Any place to which the public has access that is not privately owned; or any place to which the public has access where alcohol consumption is not allowed, including, but not limited to, a public street, road, thoroughfare, sidewalk, bridge, alley, plaza, park, playground, swimming pool, shopping area, public transportation facility, vehicle used for public transportation, parking lot, public library, or any other public building, structure; or any other public area, including beach area.
SMOKING
The smoking, vaping, aerosolizing, burning of, inhaling from, exhaling the smoke from, or the possession of a lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe or any other matter or substance which contains tobacco or any other matter that can be smoked, or the inhaling or exhaling of smoke or vapor from an electronic smoking device.
A. 
Any person violating any of the provisions of this article, upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
B. 
Penalties provided for herein shall be recoverable in a civil action by a summary proceeding in the Municipal Court of the City of Atlantic City pursuant to the Penalty Enforcement Law, N.J.S.A. 2A:58-10 et seq.