The smoking laws and amenities of Macau have been a big topic all year, and thanks to a recent update from the Macau Health Bureau, they will continue to be. The latest release by the Macau Health Bureau indicates that the number of smoking areas are at an all-time high, while total infractions are on the decline.
The report indicates that from January 1 to September 30, 2019, 1079 illegal smoking prosecutions were conducted by law enforcement. That represents a 183 decline, or 14.5% drop, in overall prosecutions when compared with the same period in 2018. This number came from 994 patrols of casino areas, a 51.3% increase in patrols.
Those numbers would suggest that while Macau has gotten much tougher on trying to catch smokers where they shouldn’t be, they’re increasingly catching less smokers. The ones they do catch though are predominantly male tourists, 1,011 of the 1079 total. As has been reported previously, the numbers continue to be dominated by tourists overall.
That would suggest smokers are making great use of the new smoking areas the city has approved, of which the report also commented on. 650 applications have been received by the authority from 34 different venues. 33 of those venues had their permits approved, with a total of 606 smoking areas cleared.
The decrease in overall violations will be good news to the casino operators, who have previously been publicized as a magnet for smoking offenses. As more smoking areas have been approved, and Macau has proven that they’re really serious about implementing these smoking laws, the problem has become more ho-hum, proving it just needed a bit of time and common sense for the situation to work itself out.
It didn’t always look that way though. Shortly after the smoking ban first really kicked in, a Chinese tourist attacked police offers who warned him not to smoke outside a casino. Thankfully, as the smoking ban has become more accommodating to smokers with additional lounges, and the law better publicized perhaps, no further attacks have happened.
