Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming July 2014 16 In Focus technology is Finnish provider Lifa Air International’s. Whilst the government has made no stipulations about the size of the rooms or their number, Apollo Kwok, Lifa Air’s technical and operations manager, says each lounge, in an ideal situation, has to be located close to the gaming tables and range from seven to 10 square meters to accommodate up to 10 smokers at a time. “Then smokers can enjoy gambling and have freedom to smoke when they like without spending their valuable time on unnecessary walking,” he says. “The amount of smoking rooms depends on several factors, but as an average, about one room [every] 300 to 500 square meters is a good guide.” Assuming 50% of the 19,000 square meters of the casino at Wynn Macau is mass-market the property could need as many as 32 lounges, based on Mr Kwok’s calculations. “The number and size [of the lounges] ultimately depend on the wishes of the casinos as some don’t have large floor areas. The old casinos may even have more challenges with establishing the smoking lounges as their infrastructures are too dated to have separate ventilation systems.” Anthony Lam | managing director, JOL Macau “The number and size [of the lounges] ultimately depend on the wishes of the casinos as some don’t have large floor areas,” JOL Macau’s Mr Lam reasons. “The old casinos may have even more challenges with establishing the smoking lounges as their infrastructures are too dated to have separate ventilation systems.” Gaming analyst David Bain of Sterne, Agee & Leach similarly pointed out in a research note in May that the so-called “satellite” casinos—third-party-managed venues operating under the licenses of SJM and Galaxy Entertainment Group, will be “most at risk” from the smoking ban. Two casinos had given up on smoking lounges on their mass floors, citing lack of “conditions” to install them, the Health Bureau said in June. The bureau declined to identify them, although both are understood to be SJM satellites. But Mr Cheang said this month the two will now install the lounges and only an unidentified slot parlor will go totally smoke-free come October. Mr So and Angela Leong On Kei, an executive director of SJM and a member of the Legislative Assembly, have repeatedly stressed that ventilation systems in numerous older SJM casinos are having a difficult time satisfying the official standards of air quality dictated by the partial ban. Indeed, more than half of the 16 gaming venues that failed to meet the requirements in two rounds of air quality tests last year were SJM’s licensees. PREMIUM AT STAKE? The impact of the October ban on SJM’s performance will be limited, Mr So said after a shareholders’ meeting in Hong Kong