55 percent of Macau casino workers unwilling to work in smoky VIP rooms

macau-smoking-ban-mass-marketSmoky VIP rooms inside Macau casinos aren’t the best place to work in for a multitude of reasons and now, numbers have backed up that belief. A recent survey commissioned by the Macau Health Bureau and conducted by the University of Macau have shown that more than 55 percent of respondents admitted that they don’t want to work in VIP rooms inside any of Macau’s casinos.

The University of Macau conducted street interviews last week, surveying 1,031 casino workers, found that 12.7 percent of that number would have no problems working inside VIP rooms if their salaries were increased. Nothing quite like the allure of more money to change one’s mind.

More than 90 percent of all the respondents approved of the government’s plans to set up smoking rooms on the mass market casino floor that would not contain any gaming equipment. Respondents were divided when asked if designated smoking areas would improve air quality inside casinos, with 36 percent believing it would but 45 percent convinced that overall air quality would improve.

The survey comes a few weeks after the Macau government announced that a full blanket ban on smoking in mass market casino areas would be put in place on October 6. Since the start of the year, the government agency has conducted a little under 100,000 inspections, having fined a total of 2,846 people for not abiding by casino rules.