The lid has been lifted on a case with Crown Casino concerning four casino employees who are suffering from major health ailments due to their employment in the high rollers room where VIP customers are permitted to smoke. Of the four employees, one 38 year old woman is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and has stated that she has never smoked in her life. This has led to her lawyers having negotiations with the casino over compensation. The mother of two children has never smoked and has less than 10 months to live.

Named the Mahogany room, the Crown Casino high roller facility is actually exempt from Victorian indoor smoking laws. Crown Casino, in careful negotiation with the government, was able to clear itself of smoking laws in order to attract international high stakes gamblers, especially from Asia. Many casino staff aptly named the smoking rooms in the Mahogany room as the cancer ward. Crown Casinos defence is that the employees themselves had the option of not working in the smoking part of the mahogany room, but due to career advancement, rostered themselves available in order to deal in the smoking environment.

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