THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

ATLANTIC CITY -- Taking a gamble of their own, Trump Plaza hotel-casino officials banned smoking Tuesday in the casino's East Tower. 

  The 15,000-square-foot East Tower casino, which is attached to the main Trump Plaza building by an enclosed second-story pedestrian bridge, has no table games, only slot machines. 

  Beginning at 6 a.m., signs saying "Breathe Easy" and "The Only Things Smoking Here Is Our Slots" were posted above some of the room's 600 slot machines. 

  Casino officials said the smoke-free casino is the first completely enclosed gambling area in an Atlantic City casino where smoking is banned. All 12 of the casinos have smoke-free areas, but most are adjacent to slot machines, blackjack tables or roulette wheels where smoking is allowed. 

  "This is the first physical building that is smoke-free, where you can actually enter and exit without passing through a smoking area," said casino spokeswoman Kim Butler. 

  Some gamblers welcomed the change. 

  "So many times, I'll get comfortable at a slot machine and someone will sit next to me and start blowing smoke. It's atrocious," said John Wood, 47, of Bronx, N.Y.  "I have enough bad habits.  I don't need secondhand smoke." 

  Grace Meyers, 66, of Colonia, who was smoking a cigarette in another part of the casino where it is allowed, applauded the move. "They should have a nonsmoking area in every casino," she said. 

  Others said it would drive away gamblers who smoke.

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