Anti-smoking inspectors fined 3,101 people for illegally puffing away last year, the Health Bureau (SSM) said in a statement yesterday.
The bureau did not announce its anti-smoking data for 2022 last year.
In Macau, smoking is banned in all indoor public venues and facilities, except smoking lounges in casinos and at the airport. In addition, smoking is also prohibited within a 10-metre-area of all public bus stops.
Illegal smoking carries a fixed fine of 1,500 patacas.
Moreover, smoking is only permitted in designated areas of public parks, gardens and recreational areas.
In addition to the 3,101 cases of illegal smoking, according to yesterday’s statement, last year the bureau also fined 18 offenders for selling tobacco products with labels that did not comply with the officially required standards, 24 travellers for bringing e-cigarettes into or taking them out of Macau, two offenders for selling tobacco products by directly displaying them on shelves, and two offenders for selling e-cigarettes. Consequently, the bureau fined a total of 3,147 violators last year. All four kinds of offences, i.e., the 46 violations, are each punishable by a fixed fine of 4,000 patacas.
The sale of e-cigarettes has been banned in Macau since January 2018. The current version of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Law, which took effect on December 5, 2022, also bans the manufacture, distribution, import and export of e-cigarettes, in addition to the ban on their sale in the city. Moreover, travellers are barred from bringing e-cigarettes into and taking them out of Macau.
According to yesterday’s statement, 558 out of the illegal smoking cases reported last year occurred in restaurants and other eateries, 322 at the airport, and 261 in casinos.
Just 2 fined for providing minors with alcoholic drinks
Meanwhile, yesterday’s statement also announced that last year the bureau’s anti-alcohol inspectors fined just two violators for providing minors with alcoholic drinks, after the new Law on the Prevention and Control on Minors’ Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages took effect on November 5 last year.
According to the new law, it is illegal to sell minors, i.e., those under the age of 18, alcoholic drinks or provide them with such drinks at public venues.
According to previous SSM announcements, the first case occurred in the early hours of November 5, the first day of the new law’s implementation, when a restaurant served alcoholic drinks to two minors who had a meal together.
