Macau’s Health Services recently issued a research which shows a striking percentage of people violating the smoking ban which is regulating the area. The authorities in the largest gambling hub in the world conducted a research which showed that there have been as many as 5,812 instances of breaching the law over the span of the first ten months since the beginning of the year.
There have been some 276,004 inspections conducted since the beginning of the ear to 31st October in the city of Macau and which makes for an average of 908 inspections over the span of a single day. These inspections have revealed a striking tendency which shows that there is a large number of people who still deem it alright to violate the law and many of them are men. Some 95 percent of the infractions in gambling venues were performed by males in the city and this comes to show that not many people take the issue and the smoking ban seriously.
About 48.6 percent of the violations of the smoking prohibition were committed by people who reside in the area whereas other 46.4 percent were tourists coming for leisure and people who visit the region for work. The remaining percentage of violations were performed by people who are non-resident workers. As for the locations of these inspections, the authorities aimed to cover as large specter as possible. A total of 560 inspections were performed in casino venues, and during them, 779 people were caught violating the law by smoking. As many as 95 percent of the violators were men, as it was noted by the Health Services of the Macau SAR government.
The Smoking Prohibition throughout the Years
The smoking ban was first introduced to the region of Macau back in 2012 and ever since then, the authorities strive to conduct regular and unexpected inspections in locations which are known for their affinity to smoking. A total of 43,764 instances of infractions have been listed since then, while the overall number of inspections amounts to more than 1.5 million occasions. The month of October 2014 brought a renovation in the gambling venues, as the so-called smoking areas were replaced by smoking lounges.
These lounges feature negative pressure system as well as independent ventilation in order to make the gaming experience of the casino customers the best possible. In the meantime, the ban on smoking was in effect in the mass gaming areas of the casino venues. The permission was exclusive for specifically appointed areas of VIP rooms. Many people were not content with the level of prohibition which inevitably led to the summer of 2015 when the public supported the idea of an overall ban on smoking in gambling venues.
However, the authorities could not keep their pledge of no compromises. There has been a proposal which will aim to prevent employees of the casino venues in Macau from smoking around the customers and it will be soon open for public comments. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the beginning of 2018 will see a swelling of the sanctions for violations which reach MOP1,500.
