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SOMERS POINT, N.J. (CBS/AP) ― Cancer patient a rallying point for foes of casino smoking

Driving to work one morning, Vince Rennich had no time to react as an oncoming van slammed head-on into his own vehicle, leaving him bleeding and dazed in the gutter.

It was the luckiest day of his life, insists the veteran Atlantic City casino worker, who knows a thing or two about luck.

For it was at the hospital where he was taken for treatment for injuries from the accident that doctors discovered something far more deadly: spots on his right lung.

"If it weren't for that accident, I would probably be dead now," he said. "I had no idea I had cancer."

But he has a pretty good idea how he got it. Rennich blames the secondhand smoke he had to breathe during his 25 years as a table games supervisor at the Tropicana Casino and Resort for causing his illness.

He has become a rallying point for those who want to see smoking eliminated in New Jersey's 11 casinos, and who oppose a compromise proposal that would set aside 25 percent of each casino's floor for smokers. The city had been set to enact a total ban on smoking in casinos, but relented under pressure from the casino industry.

At a meeting last month at which the compromise received initial approval, scores of casino workers wore bright orange shirts in support of Rennich and a total smoking ban.

"It's an emotionally charged issue," said Rennich, who will turn 49 next month. "The vast majority of us feel like we've been sold out."

Regina Carlson, executive director of the New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution, said Rennich has become one of the human faces of the casino smoking debate.

"He's a forceful person, one of the most visibly suffering," she said. "His is a particularly dramatic story; he's one of the biggest victims of all.

"But the sad thing is, he isn't alone," Carlson said. "There are dozens if not hundreds like him."

Rennich is suing the Tropicana's parent corporation, claiming it failed to protect him and others from the dangers of secondhand smoke. The suit, filed last July and pending in state Superior Court, named Aztar Corp., which was acquired last month by Columbia Entertainment, the gambling arm of Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based hotel operator Columbia Sussex Corp.

A Tropicana spokeswoman said the company had no comment on the lawsuit, Rennich's situation, or the proposed smoking restrictions in Atlantic City.

Most casinos have set aside certain gambling tables as smoke-free areas, but casino workers say smoke permeates the entire workplace. Some also offer their employees free smoking cessation classes.

Rennich says he has never smoked. He had a third of his right lung removed in September 2005, and must see a doctor every three months to make sure the cancer does not reappear.

He recently returned to work, and says the air inside the casinos is dirtier than ever since New Jersey banned smoking in most indoor places last April, but exempted the casinos.

"It's worse now; this is the only place in New Jersey you can smoke indoors," he said. "It's hard for me to breathe. It burns your lungs, your eyes. Guys I work with get four, five respiratory infections a year.

"It's even worse for me having had cancer surgery," he said. "You look up at the lights and all you see is smoke. Yesterday I had three cigar-smoking players puffing at my table. The whole pit is just covered with smoke. The dealers try to duck underneath it."

Why, then, he is often asked, doesn't he just quit the casinos and look for other work?

"I would lose my benefits, and my family would lose their benefits," Rennich said. "Who's going to hire me after having had cancer?"

But Rennich also feels a larger issue is at stake -- the duty of employers to provide their workers a safe environment.

"I don't care how much money they make or don't make -- this is a worker health issue," he said. "At no time do they think about worker safety. It's all about money, and don't kid yourself otherwise."

Under the compromise to be voted on Wednesday, the casinos would set up separate enclosures on a quarter of their floor space, with floor-to ceiling walls and high-powered ventilation systems to suck smoke out of the air.

At least some of the casinos are considering making their smoking areas lounges for patrons who wish to smoke, while keeping gambling tables in smoke-free areas. But others are toying with the idea of putting some of their highest income-generating table games in smoking areas, reasoning that many of their high-rollers are smokers.

Rennich, who is married and has two grown children, says he'd like to retire at some point from the casinos and possibly work to enact a nationwide casino smoking ban.

"I'm proud of what we've done," he said. "I have about five dollars in my pocket, and I'm going up against this billion-dollar industry. I just want to be healthy and happy again."

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)