Taiwan’s Kinmen island, a former battleground between Chinese communists and Taiwan’s Kuomintang soldiers, will once again witness history when residents vote on whether they want a casino in their jurisdiction.
Channel News Asia reported that both pro-casino and anti-casino forces are stepping-up their respective campaigns as the residents troop to their polling precincts to cast their votes on October 28.
Gambling proponents are pushing for Taiwan’s first casino in a bid to lure more tourists to the island. Tourism in Kinmen had thrived in recent years, becoming an economic driver for the island nation due to the influx of mainland Chinese tourists.
The flood of tourists, however, became a trickle as the political rhetoric between China and Taiwan escalated.
Some 60 percent or 80,000 of Kinmen’s registered population have also left the island to seek better opportunities while 60,000 remain in the area.
Kinmen Council member Tsai Chun-sheng, who initiated the vote for a casino and collected 5,602 signatures in order to put the casino idea to a referendum, believes gaming establishments are the solution to stop the brain drain in the island.
“Kinmen should develop its own industry. I don’t want our people to leave their home to become laborers elsewhere. It’s not good to leave your family here and find work away from home,” Tsai said, according to the news report.
Hung Tu-chin, a spokesman for the Kinmen Anti-gambling Front, disagrees with Tsai, saying that local development shouldn’t be the only choice for local development.
He warned that “once we introduce the gambling industry into Kinmen, it would draw in a predatory economic system that could cause irreversible damage [to] the island.”
This is Taiwan’s fourth referendum on casinos. Penghu held a casino referendum in 2009 and 2016, but the majority thumbed down the idea. Matsu, which said yes in a casino referendum in 2012, is still waiting for parliament to stop sitting on the casino bill.
