Alexis Tam satisfied with approved smoking lounges

Alexis Tam (center) toured casino smoking lounges yesterday

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam is satisfied with the operation of the new casino smoking lounges following his visit to smoking lounges in two local casinos yesterday.

Together with the Health Bureau (SSM) director, Lei Chin Ion, and the director of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Office, Tang Chi Hou, Tam paid a visit to Studio City’s mass market smoking lounges and to the Venetian Macao’s VIP room smoking lounges.

“My colleagues and I are satisfied with both the mass market lounges and the VIP room lounges,” said Alexis Tam, adding that “especially in the VIP rooms, the difference between the pressure inside the lounge and the pressure outside the lounge is four to five times higher than our requirements. In the mass market smoking lounge, it is two to three times higher.”

“In 2019, no Macau casinos will have smoking areas. They can only provide high standard smoking lounges approved by the government,” said Alexis Tam, according to whom this means that “starting from January 1, all casino mass and VIP rooms will ban smoking.”

According to SSM statistics, as of September 28, 27 of the city’s 47 casinos had submitted applications for the creation of a total of 404 smoking lounges.

Alexis Tam explained that the approval procedure involves the work of several governmental departments, therefore it require a long period for the whole process.

“If the application was submitted after September 28, then, due to an abundant amount of work needed for the procedures, casinos will not be able to set up high standard smoking lounges on time,” Alexis Tam explained.

According to Tam, casinos which did not submit their applications before September 28, will have to completely ban smoking starting from January 1 until their smoking lounges are approved.

As reported by Tang Chi Hou, 49 of the aforementioned smoking lounges have been approved already, with more than 200 applications of the 404 being requested providing supplementary documents.

Regarding these more than 200 applications, the SSM believes that the approval cannot be issued before January 1, 2019.

As of yesterday, the SSM had received applications for a total of 437 smoking lounges (404 before September 28). The 33 new applications submitted after September 28 were submitted by six casinos.

Casinos that have already gained SSM approval for their current smoking lounges can continue to apply to set up more smoking lounges.

SSM approval is the last governmental step for each smoking lounge. Once the SSM approves the application, it means that the corresponding smoking lounge can be put into operation.

Before the SSM inspection and approval, casinos are required to pass an inspection by both the Fire Services Bureau and the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau.