Legal advice: Government mulls cigarette machine ban

Our contributions to The Publican have already covered the increase in the legal age for buying cigarettes to 18 and the threatened increase in fines for selling to the underage, both of which mean that publicans should be concerned to ensure that not only are cigarette machines on their premises correctly labelled, but that they are also adequately supervised from behind the bar.

The location of cigarette machines in some pubs does lead the writer to question whether such supervision is humanly possible. However, the latest government proposal designed to tackle smoking may end up removing the need to keep a watchful eye

on this aspect of your business.

Yes, the government intends to banish the cigarette machine from the three-quarters or so of our pubs that have them. This is likely to meet with a mixed reaction among our readers. While making a machine available undoubtedly carries with it a certain responsibility for monitoring how it is used, these machines certainly provide an important service to those customers who do still smoke - even if they are not allowed to do so on the premises! There will be some publicans who feel that this is yet another example of the so-called nanny state stepping in to tell them what their business can and cannot do.

And there will also be the concern that, once smokers are forced to go down the road to the newsagent to purchase a packet of their favoured brand, they will not come back for another round.

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Joelson Wilson & Co specialises in all aspects of legal work covering liquor, entertainment, betting and gaming. The firm also offers advice on litigious matters, acquisitions and disposals and management agreements. The views expressed are given without any assumption of responsibility.