Ticker: R.I. casino workers want smoking ban; Amazon says it prevented 4 billion bad listings in 2021 – Boston Herald

Smoking was prohibited inside Rhode Islands two casinos for most of the pandemic, and now casino workers want state lawmakers to make the ban permanent.

A bill is pending in the legislature to repeal the exemption granted to casinos in the state law that prohibits smoking in public places. Casino workers from Ballys Twin River Lincoln Casino and Ballys Tiverton Casino and Hotel urged lawmakers to advance the bill, which has been held for further study.

Patti Doyle, a spokesperson for the two casinos, said Wednesday that Ballys Corporation would address any personnel concerns at the bargaining table. She said they do have some concerns about the legislative proposal and already make accommodations for nonsmokers.

Twenty states require all commercial casinos to be smokefree indoors, including Massachusetts, and there are more than 150 smokefree sovereign tribal gaming venues, according to Americans for Nonsmokers Rights. Nine states still allow smoking indoors at commercial casinos.

Amazon says it prevented 4 billion bad listings in 2021

Amazon, which has been under increasing pressure to tackle counterfeit products, said in its second-annual report that it prevented 4 billion bad listings from making it onto its site and got rid of more than 3 million phony products last year.

The results, released Wednesday, were mixed compared with 2020, when Amazon blocked 10 billion listings and got rid of 2 million phony products.

The Seattle-based e-commerce juggernaut also saw a decrease in complaints of intellectual property infringement in 2021 while growing the number of active brands on its site.

According to the report, Amazon stopped more than 2.5 million attempts to create fake accounts on its third-party marketplace, where sellers can list their products directly to consumers.

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Ticker: R.I. casino workers want smoking ban; Amazon says it prevented 4 billion bad listings in 2021 - Boston Herald