Residents of Kinmen County, a group of islands administered by Taiwan, rejected the proposed construction of casinos during a referendum that took place earlier today. Local media reported that a total of 24,368 people cast negative votes in today’s ballot and just 2,705 voted “yes” to state their support for the proposal.
Kinmen County has official population of around 140,000 people, while there are around 60,000 people to be actually living in the island group.
The announcement about the casino proposal’s rejection comes in the wake of multiple campaigns against the construction of casino-style gambling venues in the region. Opponents argued that properties of this type would steal money from the pockets of residents and would trigger different other social ills. They also pointed out that gambling could not bring genuine economic development, contrary to what had been promoted as a reason why residents should approve the measure. Supporters of the idea, on the other hand, pointed that casinos could give additional boost to local tourism.
Located not far from the Southeastern coast of Mainland China, the Kinmen group of islands is a popular tourist destination among Chinese travelers. A casino in the region was hoped to lure even more people from the mainland.
Three separate casino referendums were held on other outlying Taiwanese islands in recent years. In two of the cases, voters rejected the casino construction proposals.
Taiwan’s Casino Law
It was in 2009 when Taiwanese officials amended the nation’s Offshore Islands Development Act to allow the construction of casino resorts on such territories. However, in order for an interested developer to be able to proceed with such a project, voters from the host region needed to approve that by a referendum vote. The 2009 amendments lifted a previous ban that prevented developments of this kind on outlying islands.
As mentioned above, three referendums were previously held on offshore islands, the most recent of which took place last spring. Voters from the Penghu chain of islands rejected the possibility for the construction of a casino in the area. Penghu election officials revealed that 81% of all votes cast were against the idea.
Another casino ballot was held in the Penghu region in 2009 and it, too, saw overwhelming objection to the proposal. The turnout was higher back then, but the margin was smaller than last year.
In 2012, residents of the Matsu group of islands voted in favor of a casino development. However, no property of this kind has been built in the region since then because proper laws that would regulate the industry still need to be crafted.
Here it is also important to note that the 2009 casino amendments were not welcomed by Chinese authorities. In fact, the possibility for the construction of casino resorts on outlying islands somewhat severed ties between China and Taiwan, with mainland officials threatening to ban Chinese tourists from traveling to said islands.
