Kinmen to hold referendum on casino industry

The residents of Kinmen will have the chance to decide if they want to allow a casino industry on the island with a referendum to be held on October 28.

Taiwan.- October 28 can be a major date for the casino industry in Asia as the Election Commission of Kinmen will hold a referendum for its residents to decide if they want to allow a casino industry to develop on the island. The Asian gaming market seems to keep growing and any further expansion would attract operators from all over the region.

GGRAsia has quoted news agency Focus Taiwan, which reported that Tsai Chun-sheng, from the county council, collected 5,602 valid signatures with a petition and has forced the referendum as the minimum signatures needed to vote on any topic at a local government level is 5,178. The county’s election commission will formally announce the referendum on June 23 and has set its budget at US$296,215.

However, the Kinmen Anti-casinos Alliance has already protested against the industry and criticised the wording of the referendum request and says it was made to be “strongly persuading” and “unclear in terms of the definitions”, GGRAsia quotes. It also accused the Kinmen Election Committee of “malfeasance” and being partisan and is expected to take legal action against the decision.

This would be the fourth referendum on the topic on outer islands: Matsu was the only one that voted in favour of it in July 2012; in September 2009 and October 2016, Penghu held its own referendums having negative results in both of them.