Casino smoking room survey comes under fire

The casino workers’ union, the Forefront of Macau Gaming (FMG), has questioned the integrity of a recent survey conducted by a junket association that claims 99 percent of gaming employees and citizens are in favor of smoking rooms in casinos.
According to the union’s president Ieong Man Teng, some workers hired in VIP gambling rooms had complained that they were forced by their employers to take a stance in the survey and to choose the option of “supporting setting smoking rooms.” Furthermore, they were allegedly requested to have their family members fill in more questionnaires with the same answers. Failure to comply with these measures would have resulted in punishment with disciplinary actions at any stage said Ieong.
The survey promoter, listed in the Official Gazette with the Portuguese name “Associação de Mediadores de Jogos e Entretenimento de Macau” and led by Kwok Chi Chung, reported on Saturday that it collected a total of over 12,500 responses throughout last week within the junket sector and its related employees and citizens, which shows that 99 percent of respondents believe that a full smoking ban will affect casinos’ business and agreed to have smoking rooms inside VIP gambling areas.
Ieong suggested the survey was a move on the part of the VIP room operators to stall the government’s decision to implement a full smoking ban. “As for the VIP room employees, they are also facing a dangerous situation where migrant worker [gambling room] hosts are overflowing. They must consider their own competitiveness: If [I] don’t cooperate in this survey, will [I] bear the brunt in the future?”
Nevertheless, the activist showed no concerns over the effect of the survey results. He stated the international auditor KPMG is also conducting widespread polling on smoking control amongst gaming employees.
“Workers at all the six casino operators are asked to join and it’s being conducted in an anonymous manner, and so employees are quite willing to participate in this survey,” he stressed.
According to Ieong, the KPMG survey asks similar questions. “It has considerable credibility over the world, it’s likely the Macau government will adopt KPMG’s report as the mainstream opinion. A full smoking ban is also likely to become the final result of the mainstream opinion,” he stated.
In addition, the union leader suggested the allocation of space inside the Galaxy phase 2 project, which will be inaugurated today, could hint at casino operators’ attitude towards a full smoking ban, such as considering setting outdoor smoking areas. BY