Kinmen residents overwhelmingly vote no to casinos

Residents of Taiwan’s Kinmen County have voted against casinos in the island in a referendum held Saturday, local media reports.

The referendum, formulated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kinmen County Councilor Tsai Chun-sheng asked residents whether they supported establishing an “international holiday resort complex” with 5 percent of its space designated for gambling.

According to results released by the Kinmen County Election Commission on Saturday night, a total of 24,368 people voted “no”, compared with 2,705 “yes” votes.

Last year, a similar “no” vote was made by the residents of Penghu island in Taiwan, which was also an expected result at the time.