penghu gambling refendum

FRIDAY, 24 JULY 2009

China Post editorial:
Penghu gov't's upcoming gambling referendum

Last month, reports filtered in that a Taiwanese woman was missing somewhere near Tokyo, having been forced into prostitution until she paid off her boyfriend's gambling debts.
His mistake, it seems, was to have undertaken a series of losing bets with Taiwan's most notorious underworld gang. The gang initially exploited his grilfriend in one of its local establishments, but when her boyfriend's gambling continued, and his losses increased, the gang sold her to a Japanese mob gang.
With minor exceptions — such as the state-run lottery — gambling is illegal in Taiwan, and so is the preserve of competing gangs. Indentured prostitution, more commonly of daughters rather than girlfriends, has traditionally been just one of the unpleasant social consequences. But whether these are more likely to result from illegal gambling or legalized gambling is a hotly debated issue. Taiwan is set to conduct a social experiment that might help to find the answer.
Following the growth in online gambling and with an eye on garnering a slice of Macau's gaming-related revenues, Taiwan's national legislature passed a bill permitting the establishment of casinos on outlying islands. Next month, residents of the Penghu Archipelago (Pescadores) will vote in a referendum to decide if they want casinos in their island backyard.
Good luck to them. The consequences of gambling — social, economic, moral and environmental — are notoriously difficult to evaluate for academics, specialists and politicians, and of course for individual citizens.
On social issues, for example, it is not clear whether gambling would bring crime, drugs, prostitution, gangsters and increased suicide to Penghu, as the no-vote campaign maintains — and as the Russian government concluded before closing thousands of casinos this month — or whether by legalizing gambling such problems would diminish.
For example, despite much detailed research, it is not clear whether Las Vegas' unenviable status as America's suicide capital is a result of gambling or merely that the city's fast and loose environment draws potential suicides just as it draws high-rollers.
Similarly baffling are the economic implications. Those advocating gambling point to the vast profits made by casinos in Macau, Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and even less-publicized successes such as Canada. Gambling will bring jobs to the archipelago, they argue, firstly for construction of casinos and then for their operation. By reversing the islands' waning fortunes — increased tourism does not offset the decline in fishing — the mass migration of the islands' youths to Taiwan proper might be reversed.
Others argue that gambling profits are a finite resource, and as more countries relax regulations on gambling and allow more forms of gambling, the pie will be split into ever smaller pieces. “Gambling tourism” will dwindle, therefore, as punters place bets nearer home. Moreover, opponents say, all but a handful of work opportunities will be McJobs suited to students back home on vacation but not to young people hoping for sustainable employment and a career on which to raise a family.
Indeed, some residents worry that the role models provided by wealthy betters could undermine young people's work ethic altogether, replacing the islanders' renowned long-term industrious outlook with the get-rich-quick mentality that has already corrupted many in Taiwan. It is this environment of easy money and easy losses that anti-casino campaigners claim will lead to escalating social problems and, indeed, to illegal gambling alongside legal forms, and will not be limited to those gambling or working in casinos. Las Vegas' high suicide rate, double the national average, applies to casino workers and other residents, as well as visitors.
While the social, economic and moral debates are unclear, pro-casino advocates find it hard to argue that extending docks and expanding runways for larger and more numerous boats and planes, constructing casinos, hotels and resorts, and attracting ever more visitors, will have positive impact on Penghu's near-pristine environment. Located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, with little intensive agriculture and even less industry, the islands have air and water qualities that are among the ROC's purest. This is what attracts the current half-million tourists each year, and if gambling threatens Penghu's environment, it will therefore threaten the emerging tourist industry. It will also put enormous strain on the islands' water resources since, without any rivers, all water that does not come from rain catchments must be taken from the groundwater. On a larger scale, construction of casinos on outlying islands accessible most conveniently by airplane will increase Taiwan's contribution to emission of greenhouse gases.
With these considerations in mind, perhaps, the central government has altered its outright support for casino construction to talk of “balanced development including casinos.” It is Penghu's local government officials who are particularly gung-ho about introducing gambling and who have been pushing for holding a referendum.
Let us hope that they have the islands' and the islanders' best interests at heart. Moreover, should Penghu residents cast their votes against the casinos, let us not witness the abuse of democratic process whereby officials hold referendum after referendum until they get the result they desire.
Let us also hope that the islanders somehow manage to evaluate the complex information being presented to them, and achieve what experts and academics cannot: to decide whether introducing gambling is to the archipelago's advantage.

(not quite the original ending, but hey ... )