Slots Logic reviews and rates the world's top online slots.
Visit Casino Advisor for the best online casino reviews, news and much more.
|
Spain’s restaurateurs and bar owners say the country’s latest stab at a smoking ban, set to come into force on 2 January, will damage business and destroy jobs.
The sector’s national federation is predicting a seven percent drop in custom at bars and a slump of 20 percent at nightclubs, with up to 145,000 hospitality jobs put at risk. That decline in attendance is also likely to hit spending on amusement and vending machines at bars and clubs.
Under the current law, smaller restaurants and bars under 100 metres square can elect to allow smoking – and many have – while larger locations can have a physically separated smoking area occupying up to 30 percent of floor space.
And local governments in many communities, including Madrid and Valencia, have chosen largely to ignore the rules, allowing smokers a much freer rein than in most European countries.
The new regime, however, will end the hospitality sector’s exemption. It will also introduce tighter controls on the sales of tobacco.
The Congress of Deputies – the lower house of Spain’s parliament – approved the new measures in mid-October. They have still to be endorsed by the Senate, the upper house, but the bill is not expected to fail.
