Taiwan Central News Agency reported that Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party legislators Lin Ching-yi, Yang Yao, Chen Man-li and Wu Yu-chin were all moving to strike off Article 10-2 of the island nation’s Offshore Island Development Act.
The article provides that a casino resort
can be "opened” as long as more than half the valid votes cast in any outlying
island referendum approve the setting up of such an establishment.
According to reports, the proposal to
remove outlying islands’ rights to casino referendums has already been
submitted to the Economics Committee of Taiwan’s single-chamber parliament, the
Legislative Yuan.
The committee will thoroughly review the
proposal of the four DPP legislators before they send it to the Taiwan
legislators for a second reading.
For these legislators, holding a referendum
are costing the government much money as what happened during the referendums
in Penghu and Matsu. Lin believes by abolishing Article 10-2, the government
will be able to save more administrative resources. She added that gaming was
not a concept supported either by popular opinion in Taiwan or by trends in the
regional industry.
In joining calls for the abolition of
casino referendum, Yang pointed out that any development of casino gaming on an
outlying island of Taiwan would be dependent on mainland Chinese patrons – a
model that could easily lead to failure, and amounted to a "lack of
competitiveness.”
Coincidentally, the move of the DPP
legislators comes at a time when an official from the Kuomintang political
party filed a petition with the Kinmen County government to hold a referendum
on legalizing gambling in the island.
The referendum may pave the way for casinos
to be established in the country. The proponents, however, need to gather 6,307
signatures in order to get the appropriate election committee to prepare for a
referendum.
If all goes according to plan, this could
be the third time a Taiwanese outlying island will hold a referendum on
gambling after the government lifted the 15-year prohibition on gambling on the
islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu in September 2009.
Source: GMB / Calvinayre.com
