Following the recently publicized scandal involving governmental officials and gambling, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Jung-chung (郭榮宗) yesterday warned against the legalization of gambling, saying that such a move would probably cause more social problems.
Kuo said that politicians from every political party frequently gamble abroad, and that allowing casinos into the country and legalizing gambling could present a threat to social order, he added.
Yeh Chih-kuei (葉智魁), a professor from National Dong Hwa University specializing in the research of US casinos, said that casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City have caused crime rates to surge in those areas as well as increasing levels of corruption among government officials.
Those who advocate the establishment of casinos try to make sure that the building of such places will not disturb the social order, Yeh said. However, even in the largely law-abiding society that is the US, crime rates in casino districts are higher than other areas, he added.
Yeh also said that it would be a waste of resources to have extra police helping to maintain order in casino districts if gambling was legalized in Taiwan.
Shih Chao-hui (釋昭慧), professor of ethics at Hsuan Chuang University, said he was planning to pass a petition against the legalization of gambling around election candidates to sign before the elections.
Shih said that the signatures he obtains will be announced later in the month to see which candidates agree or disagree with such a policy and urged voters to vote against those who want to legalize gambling.
"We don't want Taiwan to become the ROC -- the Republic of Casino," Shih said. "Many people are disillusioned, thinking that casinos will bring in money and benefits, but that's not true. We have to surrender social order and morals when we have casinos."
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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