Only half of smoking lounge applications approved in Macau, health bureau says

The government of Macau has approved a little more than half of the total requests for smoking lounges in casinos that it received since two years ago.

Quoting a release from the Health Bureau, GGRAsia reported that only 86 out of the 155 applications, or about 55.5 percent of the total number of requests it received since 2014, were OK’d in the city state as of February 5.

There are 36 registered casinos in Macau applied for smoking lounges, but only 27 have been allowed at least one smoking lounge, the government document stated.

The health bureau did not mention the reason behind its modest approval rate, according to the news outlet. It also didn’t state how many smoking lounge requests are still pending review.