Macau’s Health Bureau says it has received applications from 12 of Macau’s 47 gaming venues to set up new smoking rooms, but only two have so far been approved.
In an update on the government’s enforcement of strict new tobacco control laws introduced earlier this year, the Health Bureau said that the applications included requests for installation of 88 new smoking rooms of which 10 have been approved. Those 10 are all for City of Dreams in Cotai and Ponte 16 on Macau’s Inner Harbour foreshore.
Macau currently houses 42 casinos and five slots parlours.
Macau introduced its New Tobacco Control Act from 1 January this year, extending non-smoking areas across the city including a ban on smoking in the VIP areas of casinos. However, casino operators have 12 months before they must fully implement the ban at which time smoking will only be allowed inside specially ventilated smoking rooms.
In this week’s update, the Health Bureau said that operators must submit their applications for installation of new smoking rooms by 28 September 2018 in order to be operational by 1 January 2019 “due to the time required for examination and approval.” However, operators are still free to apply after 28 September.
Notably, casinos continue to attract the most prosecutions when it comes to illegal smoking with 1,140 prosecutions in the first eight months of the year, representing 30.1% of all prosecutions, the Health Bureau said.
In total there were 3,789 prosecutions Macau-wide between January and August, down from 4,997 in the same period last year. But prosecutions in casinos increased by 84, largely on the back of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau increasing the number of inspections it conducted from 426 to 588. More than 87% of those prosecuted inside casinos were tourists.
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