Macau casino junket operators are pleading with the special administrative region’s government to allow them to operate smoking lounges in their VIP gaming rooms.

On Tuesday, the Macau Junket Operators Association declared that the government’s plan to impose a blanket smoking ban in casinos would be “fatal” for Macau’s already slumping VIP gaming sector. Association boss Kwok Chi Chung made the comment following a meeting with Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong Vai Tac.

Macau casinos are currently mired in a yearlong gaming revenue decline, driven by a dramatic shrinking of the VIP market. Kwok told reporters that junket operators “do not oppose the government carrying out measures to control smoking in casinos … but we want our businesses to survive.”

The government had previously allowed smoking to continue in VIP rooms along with the construction of designated smoking lounges on the mass gaming floor. Both of these options will be phased out under the blanket ban. Kwok insisted that the VIP sector was “different to the mass gaming business” and thus deserved special consideration.