A proposal to introduce casinos to Taiwan's outer islands has been tabled many times over the years -- but without studies of the possible impact of crime resulting from the move.
In a recent development, however, Lin Chia-cheng (
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Penghu is the most likely candidate among several counties for legalizing gambling due to pressure from local politicians in the area.
The introduction of casinos in special areas was first publicly discussed in 1988. Advocates said casinos could boost tourism and stimulate the economy of remote areas, creating more tax revenue.
Objections have focused on issues of public order and morality.
While formulating the Offshore Islands Development Act (
The Act passed the legislature last March.
But the proposal of allowing casinos on offshore islands has not faded.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development gave an assessment on the potential advantages and disadvantages of the policy to the Executive Yuan last December.
"It's up to the Executive Yuan to decide on the policy. However, the point is that a consensus [over the issue] has not yet been reached," a council official said.
On public order, the report says, "According to the examples of other countries, gambling businesses often use lawful activities to cover up illegal deals such as drug trafficking, illegal immigrant smuggling, prostitution and money laundering.
The intervention of gangsters has often caused a deterioration in public safety and caused an increase in the crime rate."
It also says that in Colorado, New Jersey and Nevada, crime rates have soared due to the establishment of casinos. In Korea and Malaysia, the report says, this did not happen because of effective police control.
Council officials acknowledged that the report was a secondhand analysis primarily based on another report titled "A Research on the Establishment of Tourist Casinos in Taiwan," that was conducted by the Tourism Bureau, under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, in 1996.
However, a tourism bureau official told the Taipei Times that the 1996 report was confidential and not comprehensive.
"It could hardly be of value for reference, actually," the official said, "and external conditions then were different [from now]."
Yeh Chih-kuei (
Citing US data, some of it provided by the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling, Yeh said that rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny, child abuse and domestic violence were bound to increase sharply in areas where casinos are located.
"Venting the desire for gambling," has been one of the arguments by proponents for casinos. They say that since it is impossible to completely ban gambling, it is better to legalize it so that crime resulting from it can be reduced.
Yeh disagreed, saying that according to the experience of other countries, legalized gambling was likely to create gambling addiction, or "pathologic gambling," rather than a drop in people's desire to gamble.
"Gambling addicts will resort to whatever means to get money for further gambling and their losses in gambling could also lead to serious frustration, leading to more crime," Yeh said.
Victor Sun (
"It's a fallacy," he said.
Sun said other gambling-related crimes in the US studies include embezzlement, fraud, usury and prostitution.
He agreed, however, that the government might choose a relatively isolated place to tentatively allow the establishment of casinos, if there was good management.
"Then see how it goes and what impact it has for further policy revision,"
Yeh, however, said the so-called "good management" policy trumpeted by casinos advocates, was not practical.
"The profits of the gambling industry are too big and criminal gangs would definitely seek to access to it. Looking at the experience of other countries I am not optimistic that our government would do it much better," Yeh said.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
"However, the decision should be made by the Executive Yuan, and if it decides to go this way, then what the justice ministry would do is to draft legal amendments to decriminalize gambling," he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique