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Aug 20, 2008

Casinos around the corner

Taipei Times reports...

A total of 38 forums will be held around Penghu County this fall to gather the opinions of locals on the development of casinos. The forums, scheduled to be held between next Tuesday and Sept. 22 at various locations around Penghu, including the rural islets of Jibei (吉貝), Hujing (虎井) and Niaoyu (鳥嶼), are targeted at reaching a consensus of all Penghu residents on casino development in their hometown, officials from the Penghu County Tourism Bureau said. Eight academics from National Penghu University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology are expected to join county officials and representatives of Penghu-based travel agencies at the forums to inform Penghu residents of the advantages and disadvantages of developing tourist casino hotels in .

The forums came after Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that decriminalizing gambling in offshore areas of the country would be one of the administration’s goals.

2 comments:

skiingkow said...

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Oh! For the love of everything sacred! Don't do it, Taiwan! The last thing you need are casinos. The social ills far outweigh the benefits. Besides, Macau is just around the corner.
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Daphne said...

I'm in favor of the casinos, especially if it's part of an int'l chain. Taiwanese people already gamble under the table anyway. Plus, the majority of a casino's revenue actualy comes from entertainment, conferences, etc.

Early in Chen's first term, people from the Venetian considered coming to Taiwan, only to be rejected by the gov't. Now, we can only salivate as the hotel has already broken even in 2 years of being in Macau.