Minority pushes anew for compliance with smoking law

The House minority bloc reiterated yesterday their concerns over the Saipan casino’s alleged noncompliance with smoking prohibitions, urging authorities to enforce the law.

In a letter to casino regulators, all nine House minority bloc members reiterated their concern over the secondhand smoke that is “affecting employees and visitors” to the T Galleria, Hard Rock Café, and the Noodle House, which are all near the casino floor.

“We…request that proper authorities enforce the law,” the lawmakers write.

The letter essentially responds to a letter from casino lawyer Viola Alepuyo to the Commonwealth Casino Commission last week, in which she argued that no law currently exists to ban smoking in casinos. Rather, she said, the casino is in fact an “enclosed area,” and if gaming floors at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino can be exempted from smoking bans, then Best Sunshine must also be exempted.

In her letter, Alepuyo said there have been no citations to the casino since health officials inspected it. However, the lawmakers said the absence of a citation is not the same as full compliance.

The lawmakers said the casino “confused” the use of discretion on the part of health and law officials as compliance.

“A warning is not an invitation to continue committing the same offense. It is an invitation to correct the wrong and make amends,” they said.

Casino vs live training facility

Alepuyo wrote last week that the Smoke Free Air Act does not regulate smoking in “enclosed gaming areas of casino establishments.”

She also told reporters last week—citing public law definitions of “enclosed areas” and the law that exempts gaming floors from the smoking ban—that her client, Best Sunshine, is in full compliance with the law.

“The law in my mind is clear,” she had said.

The lawmakers yesterday said local law does not show an exception for enclosed gaming area of a “live training facility.”

“Neither the English language advertisements in the local newspapers, nor the invitations for the grand opening on Nov. 27…expressly mention a ‘casino,’” the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers said the legislative history regarding amendments to the Smoke Free Air Act reflected widespread support for increasing the number of hotel rooms that could be designated for smoking to accommodate more tourists. Hard Rock Café or the T Galleria are not private rooms, the lawmakers wrote. They are businesses open to the public.

The lawmakers said the amendments to the Smoke Free Air Act centered on the personal choice of visitors to smoke in the privacy of their own rooms or not. The Smoke Free Air Act, though, was enacted to protect the non-smoking public from the risks of secondhand smoke “in public places,” the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers said that the text of the smoking law amendment, Public Law 17—31, states, “Smoke from designated smoking rooms shall not infiltrate into areas where smoking is prohibited.”

“Even if the smoking is done in a legally designated area, the smoke still cannot infiltrate another area where smoking is prohibited,” the lawmakers said.