Analysts see casino smoking ban doing little harm

Gaming industry analysts forecast that the ban on smoking on casino gaming floors will do little to curb the industry’s revenue. The government will ban smoking on gaming floors in October, but allow it in smoking rooms that have no gaming facilities. Research house Union Gaming Research Macau forecasts no “measurably negative impact” on gross gaming revenue. “We would expect nearly all casinos to construct multiple smoking rooms on any given mass-market gaming floor,” it says. Stockbroker Sterne Agee says: “The primary reason patrons go to Macau is to gamble, not smoke at will in any location.” Investment bank Morgan Stanley, however, forecasts that the ban will rein in gaming revenue, as similar bans in other countries have done.