• March 28, 2024

Betting on more smoking lounges

 Betting on more smoking lounges

Gaming operators in Macau have applied for permission to establish 73 more smoking lounges in 21 casinos, the Health Bureau (SSM) has divulged.

According to a story in The Macau News, this information was provided in a written reply to a question by lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng.

The bureau’s response, which was made public on Wednesday, indicated too that the current number of casino smoking lounges stands at 86.

A standing committee of the Legislative Assembly is still reviewing a string of proposed amendments to the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law, which took effect in 2012.

The government-drafted amendment bill proposes a blanket ban on smoking in casinos. However, some legislators oppose the total ban.

And the committee is slated to continue its review after the summer recess, which ends next month.

Currently, smoking is banned in casinos’ mass-market gambling halls but allowed in so-called VIP rooms frequented by high rollers.

According to the bureau’s response, the authorities carried out 46 anti-smoking inspections in casinos in the first half of the year. The bureau’s anti-smoking hotline received 561 complaints during the six-month period, but it wasn’t clear whether these all had to do with smoking in casinos.