Punters will be able to smoke and gamble on an outside balcony at Dunedin Casino, despite objections from anti-gambling campaigners.
Last month, the casino won approval from the Gambling Commission for a new floor plan, which would allow eight poker machines on its smoking balcony.
The move has angered the Problem Gambling Foundation (PGF) which argued in its submission there was a clear and well documented relationship between smoking and problem gambling.
"It is no surprise that the casino would seek to exploit the additional revenue opportunity this application would create, if approved," the foundation said in the released decision last month.
The Salvation Army also spoke out against the proposal.
However an earlier decision allowing patrons to smoke outside a Wellington tavern, and the grant of a similar application by the Auckland casino, led the Gambling Commission to approve the Dunedin application.
The Gambling Commission stated the casino's host responsibility obligations were "sufficiently onerous", that any signs of problem gambling while smoking and playing the machines would be identified.
The casino submitted it would also install aluminium louvres to prevent gambling being visible from outside.
Under the smokefree law, a smoking area at a pub or casino had to be open to the outdoors.
PGF chief executive Graeme Ramsey said he was disappointed by the decision which went against two decades of health reform.
"This is about a way to get more money out of the same group of people."
