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Taiwan lifts casino ban
AFP - 1 hour 48 minutes ago
TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's parliament on Monday voted through a controversial bill lifting a decades-old ban on casinos -- despite protests that gambling could lead to a damaging decline in public morality.
The ruling Kuomintang (KMT), who dominate the legislature, pushed through the law at a vote of 71-26 allowing the offshore islands to build casinos only if they are approved by residents in referenda.
"This is one of the political agendas listed on the campaign platform of President Ma Ying-jeou last year," Kuomintang parliamentarian Lin Tsang-min said.
President Ma, who took office in May, must sign the bill before it takes effect.
The Cabinet will set up a committee to work out detailed measures stipulating the governing of casinos, like the number and size of casinos to be licensed and the minimum capital for casinos.
The Kuomintang government said the move would help the poor offshore islands by attracting tourists.
"It would certainly a boost to the offshore islands' competitive edge in tourism and land development," Lin said, referring to Penghu, the island groups located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait which is the most likely venue of the first casinos.
If Penghu inaugurates casinos, it would attract half a million tourist visits each year, generating 100 billion Taiwan dollars (3.0 billion US) worth of revenues in gambling and tourism, according to an evaluation study prepared by Taiwan's top economic planning body Council for Economic Planning and Development.
Casinos and related businesses could create up to 50,000 jobs for Penghu residents, it estimates.
However, approving the bill was not without controversies.
Outside parliament, dozens of demonstrators, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, braved chilly winds and staged a sit-in protest.
"The bill is sure to pollute the people's minds," a protester said.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ridiculed the Kuomintang government's hope of building Penghu into a gaming hub to compete with the southern Chinese enclave of Macau.
"First is gambling, then come pornography and crimes," DPP legislator Tien Chiu-chin said, adding that "gambling is not likely to solve the economic problems".
Local media speculated that the world's casino giants would pour money into Penghu after they were hammered by the global financial tsunami.
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