ATLANTIC CITY — A former casino employee who said his lung cancer was caused by 25 years of exposure to secondhand smoke at work has settled a lawsuit against his former employer for $4.5 million.
Vince Rennich’s lawsuit against the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City became a rallying cry for the ultimately unsuccessful effort to ban smoking in the nation’s second-largest gambling market.
“I wanted to have smoking stopped in the casinos; that was my goal,’’ Rennich said yesterday. “It was never about money.’’
Rennich works at Dover Downs, a smoke-free casino in Delaware. He says the atmosphere there is much better than Atlantic City, where smoking is allowed on 25 percent of the casino floor.
The Tropicana declined to comment. The lawsuit was settled in September.
The 52-year-old Rennich learned of his cancer in 2005 when he was hospitalized after a car accident. He had one-third of his right lung removed in September of that year, and says he is feeling well.
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