A former Atlantic City casino employee who said his lung cancer was caused by 25 years of exposure to secondhand smoke at work has settled a lawsuit for $4.5 million.

Vince Rennich’s lawsuit against the Tropicana Casino and Resort 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,” said Rennich, of Somers Point, NJ. “It was never about money.”