Macau | Health authorities have so far authorised 49 new smoking lounges

Macau (MNA) – Macau health authorities indicated on Wednesday that they have approved 49 requests for installing new smoking lounges following newly proposed requirements.

Previously the Health Bureau (SS) indicated that until September 28 – the final deadline for applications – a total of 27 casino venues in Macau had applied for 404 licenses to install new smoking lounges inside their premises, with Ponte 16, City of Dreams and Studio City some of the properties that had been revealed to have seen new smoking lounges requests approved.

Of the 46 casinos in Macau, 20 did not make applications for new smoking rooms, all of them affiliated with either gaming operators Melco or SJM.

The SS will only reveal the list of casinos with newly approved smoking lounges in December of this year.

The statements were made after a visit today of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam to smoking lounges at Melco Resorts property Studio City and at Sands China property The Venetian.

“We visited VIP rooms and common areas in these casinos and we were satisfied […] The new smoking law approved in 2017 will soon be enforced and several casinos had said to be available to install the new smoking lounges. We hope they can match the requirements, especially the distance between smokers and gaming tables and negative pressure above 5 pascal,” the Secretary indicated.

New smoking regulations were enforced on January 1 of this year, with casinos given one year to adhere to new requirements.

After the full enactment of the smoking ban on casinos on January 1, 2019, VIP rooms will be required to include smoking lounges with existing smoking lounges in mass market gaming areas having to conform with the requirements set by the new law.

Smoking lounges should have one entrance or exit, which operates as an automatic sliding door. When the door of the smoking lounge is open, the air flow speed should be at least 0.1 m/s, and the negative air pressure should be above 5 pascal while the door is closed.

The Secretary stated that some of the smoking lounges installed and approved were said to have standards double what is required by the new law.

The Health Bureau Director, Lei Chin Ion, indicated that the department could not promise all applications would be approved before January 1, 2018 since half of the applications had missing documents.

“All these requests need to fulfill fire safety requirements, then requirements from the the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ) and then we will check the negative pressure, ventilation, if the smoke doesn’t come out after one minute of the [lounge] door being opened […] If one of the requirements is missing, the [casinos] need to improve it,” the city’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Office head, Tang Chi Ho, said.

According to the SS, casinos who applied for the new smoking lounges after September 28 might not have the lounges approved until January 1, 2019 and will have to implement a total smoking ban after the ban is in force on the gaming areas without appropriate smoking areas until the new smoking rooms are authorized.

In regard to enforcement of the law, Mr. Tang added that services currently have 80 health inspectors and assistants, who besides inspecting smoking lounge requirements also inspect health establishments such as pharmacies.

Nevertheless the SS representatives stated that only after smoking ban enactment the department will assess if an increase in the number of health inspectors was needed.

The SS recorded some 1,431 infractions in casinos in the first 10 months of the year, a 84 per cent year-on-year increase.