I was very interested to read in the South China Morning Post on December 13 that the Urban and Regional Services departments have issued 48 verbal warnings and seven warning letters in four months this year, concerning smoking in restaurants. This compares with 3,594 convictions and fines for smoking in games centres over a period of one year.
I cannot see where the justification is in taking such punitive action against smokers in games centres but not taking any action against those smoking in restaurants. Surely the health of young children is more likely to be affected from nearby smokers when they visit restaurants. Children under 18 are not allowed into games centres. One wonders what the statistics are for convictions for those caught smoking in shopping malls, supermarkets and department stores etc.
It has been suggested the reason for such discriminatory action is possibly that games centres come under the control of a different department, the Television Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA). There is possibly some truth in this when one considers the vastly disproportionate scale of licence fees between games centres and snooker/billiard halls licensed by the Urban Services Department.
I will be waiting to see a reply from the TELA, but won't be holding my breath.
JOHN WILSON Kowloon
