Macau’s casinos have been responsible for more than a quarter of the SAR’s smoking infractions in the six months since tighter smoking laws came into force.
According to statistics releases by the Macau Health Bureau, authorities conducted almost 175,000 inspections between the start of the year to 30 June 2019, with 2,941 prosecutions. Of those, casinos recorded the highest number of prosecutions with 775 or 26.4%, followed by 499 cases in parks, gardens and rest areas and 330 cases at Macau International Airport.
Notably, the 775 recorded infractions came from just 795 joint inspections on casinos by the Health Bureau and the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The Health Bureau also revealed that it has received applications for the approval of 616 smoking rooms in 34 Macau casinos, of which 562 rooms in 31 casinos have been given the green light. Among those to have had smoking rooms approved are Sands Macao, The Venetian Macao, Sands Cotai Central, City of Dreams, MGM Macau, Wynn Macau, Wynn Palace, Broadway, Galaxy Macau, StarWorld and Ponte 16.
Macau introduced its New Tobacco Control Act on 1 January 2019, extending the city’s non-smoking areas to include a ban on smoking in the VIP areas of casinos, with smoking now only allowed inside specially ventilated smoking rooms.
RelatedPosts
