From When smoke gets in your dice 24 march 2010 Article in Today online
Others were bemused as to why smoking was allowed in the casino in the first place, given Singapore’s strict laws banning smoking in enclosed spaces such as nightspots, hawker centres, restaurants and car parks, among other public places.
“Are there double standards involved here?” wondered Today letter-writer Wee Hsiang Ling, who was surprised to see areas demarcated for smokers at the RWS casino.
The decision to exclude gaming halls from the smoking ban was made in 2008. This was on condition the latter drew up “house rules” to protect non-smokers
Bad pun headlining the article aside, the reason for the exemption is succinctly given later in the article. “Some industry estimates that up to 85% of gamblers tend to be smokers”. i.e no-smoking zones are bad for business. From a practical standpoint, you can’t have fume boxes either because that means getting gamblers off their hotseats. House rules, after all, are the most made-to-be-broken ones. It’s like telling a couple not to hold hands on your living room couch. They get away with nothing more than a stern little wag of the finger and will never get booted out of your party.
Filed under: 2010, Campaigns/Elections, Casino/gambling Tagged: | Casino/gambling, house rules, RWS, Sentosa, smoking
