A method of and apparatus for incorporating primary components of an EAS system into hand-supportable and countertop-supportable bar code symbol reading systems having a housing with a light transmission window covered by an optically transparent faceplate having outer dimensions closely matched to the light transmission window. About the optically transparent faceplate, a faceplate bezel is mounted embodying a coil of electrically conductive wire having terminals connected to an electrical interface circuit, which is connected to a flexible EAS cable extending from the electrical interface circuit. The flexible EAS cable extends towards electrical drive circuitry associated with the EAS subsystem, for powering the coil during EAS tag deactivation operations controlled by the host computer system.