Inside Asian Gaming

OCTOBER 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 11 Health Bureau declares enforcement plans for Macau casino smoking laws Summit Ascent turns focus away from VIP Macau’s Health Bureau has promised to “strictly enforce” its new smoking laws inside Macau casinos after revealing details of its plans to work alongside the local regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), to monitor casino operations. The Health Bureau said that enforcement of the smoking laws – aimed primarily at protecting the health of Macau’s casino employees – will be jointly handled by the two government agencies, with the DICJ to arrange staff to be stationed at various Macau casinos 24 hours a day. The agencies will also conduct joint assault tobacco control inspections “to ensure the effectiveness of law enforcement and the suppression of illegal smoking,” the Health Bureau said. Macau introduced its New Tobacco Control Act from 1 January 2018, extending non-smoking areas across the city including a ban on smoking in the VIP areas of casinos. However, casino operators have until 1 January 2019 before they must fully implement the ban, at which time smoking will only be allowed inside specially ventilated smoking rooms. According to the Health Bureau, comments compiled via public consultation earlier this week included a number of recommendations to curb illegal smoking on casino floors including a blacklist for those caught smoking and a fine of 15,000 yuan for casinos that do not perform their duties as venue managers. “The Health Bureau will, as always, strictly enforce the law and will review the implementation of various tobacco control efforts in a timely manner,” it said. “At the same time, it will continue to enhance public awareness of the smoking hazards and gradually reduce the smoking rate in Macau and safeguard the health of the public.” Summit Ascent Holdings Limited says it has re- focused its energies at Tigre de Cristal away from VIP and towards developing its own premium mass business following increasing pressure from agents requesting higher rebates. Releasing its financial results for the first six months of 2018, which saw revenue increase 2% year-on-year to HK$207.8 million, Summit Ascent revealed a significant reversal in its dominant revenue streams with mass table business up 47% to HK$83.5 million and VIP declining 45% to HK$41 million on the back of a 23% decrease in VIP turnover to HK$6.5 billion. “This is primarily the result of our efforts to develop our ‘premium mass’ segment targeting Asian players, as well as increased flight connectivity and increasing awareness of our property among our target feeder markets,” the company said. “Since the beginning of the year, we have been under increasing pressure from agents currently working at Tigre de Cristal requesting higher levels of rebates. Instead of giving in to such pressure which would ultimately result in a substantial erosion of margin, management has decided to focus more of our efforts on developing our own ‘premium mass’ business. The result has been quite encouraging.”