{"id":172,"date":"2019-10-11T12:28:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T12:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=172"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:27:12","slug":"casino-smoking-lounges-macau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/casino-smoking-lounges-macau","title":{"rendered":"Casino smoking lounges boom in Macau"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Macau\u2019s Health Bureau granted permission for\nseveral new-style smoking lounges in Macau\u2019s gaming venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Macau.- During September alone, Macau\u2019s Health Bureau<\/strong><\/em> granted permission for 23 new-style smoking lounges in Macau\u2019s gaming venues, according to an update published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last day of the month, there was an aggregate of 606 new-style\nsmoking lounges \u2013 as required under recently-updated legislation \u2013 for a total\nof 34 gaming venues in the city. The figures point to a simple average \u2013 not accounting for variation in\nthe size of Macau gaming properties \u2013 of 18 smoking lounges per casino venue in\nMacau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Health Bureau noted on Wednesday that as of September 30 it had received requests for an aggregate of 650 smoking lounges from 34 gaming venues in Macau<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are currently 45 gaming venues in operation in Macau, according to local casino regulator: Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau<\/strong><\/em>. Many of the venues have either multiple gaming floors or multiple gaming areas. Commonly, including VIP zones often physically separate from the main gaming facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crackdown on smoking<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Smoking was first prohibited in 2014, except for designated enclosed areas. In January 2018, VIP rooms also joined the ban. However, authorities granted an additional year to comply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several investment analysts had mentioned previously that the full application \u2013 with effect from January 1, 2019 \u2013 of new smoking rules were however, a headwind for the gaming sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Wednesday\u2019s written announcement, the Health Bureau said it conducted 994 joint patrols of Macau gaming floors with officials, registering 1.079 cases of alleged smoking rule violations, down 14.5% from the prior-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, those incidents accounted for 25.9% of public smoking infractions citywide in the first nine months of 2019. Casinos are the biggest single source of Macau\u2019s reported smoking rule violations so far this year, according to the bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, both City of Dreams\u2019 casino, operated by Melco Resorts and Entertainment, and the casino at Venetian Macao run by Sands China Ltd, were identified as \u201cblack spots\u201d for alleged smoking rule violations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macau\u2019s Health Bureau granted permission for several new-style smoking lounges in Macau\u2019s gaming venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Health Bureau has approved 23 new-style smoking lounges in September, bringing the total to 606 across 34 gaming venues, as per updated legislation. Despite these provisions, the Bureau reported 1,079 alleged smoking rule violations, with casinos being the primary source, and identified City of Dreams and Venetian Macao as \"black spots.\" This regulatory enforcement continues to be a headwind for the gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Macau\u2019s Health Bureau, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Melco Resorts and Entertainment, Sands China Ltd, City of Dreams, Venetian Macao","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR","query":"What is the estimated impact of these ongoing smoking lounge regulations and enforcement actions on Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and specific gaming verticals, particularly VIP segments, for the next fiscal year?"},{"label":"Operator Compliance Strategies","query":"How are major Macau gaming operators, especially those identified as \"black spots,\" adapting their operational governance frameworks and internal compliance protocols to mitigate future smoking rule violations and associated penalties?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,16338,156],"tags":[29,257,337],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-east-asia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-casino","tag-macau","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777017230,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/777017230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}