Labor groups in Macau say some of the city’s casinos are flouting a new government-imposed smoking ban in public gaming areas by allowing players to light up at select tables reserved for big bettors.
The city Health Bureau has already voiced concerns about compliance with the ban, which came into effect October 6 and prohibits smoking on the casinos’ main floors. The Macau Federation of Trade Unions and the Macau Gaming Enterprises Staff’s Association have accused Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams and Altira casinos in particular of skirting the rules.
An unidentified employee of Melco Crown told a press conference called by the federation that the company had informed the staff of one of the casinos that it was allowing smoking at certain mass-market tables after 11 p.m. and had converted an entire public floor into a “VIP area” where smoking is permitted.
Some employees working in the new smoking areas said they were “shocked” by these changes and complained their working environment is worse now than before the ban came into effect.
“In the first two weeks, we were very satisfied with the new ban’s implementation, but now there have been some changes that impose a bigger threat to casino workers’ health,” Choi Kam Fu, director-general of the Gaming Enterprises Staff’s Association, said at the press conference. “Such breaches resulted in more guests going into the high-betting areas, where the concentration of smoke got higher, and a greater workload was put upon the staff.”
Legislative Assembly member Lei Cheng I, who spoke as the director of the federation’s Department of Rights and Interests, criticized the two casinos for “exploiting legal loopholes” and “challenging the government’s law enforcement”.
The casinos and some analysts had expected more flexible restrictions permitting smoking at physically sequestered mass-market tables purportedly open only to select “premium-mass” players. Some casinos had constructed such areas in anticipation of such a loophole only to realize that smoking would only allowed in airport-style smoking rooms, which some had neglected to construct.
The ban exempts private VIP rooms.
