Taiwan to Become Like Vegas

Well, we have the high divorce rates, the gangsters, and the prostitution, so with the ground well-laid (so to speak), we may be seeing the gambling at last:

THREE Scots businessmen and a Las Vegas gambling guru have revealed plans to build a ?350m casino resort in a tropical paradise off the Taiwanese coast.

Former Magnum Power finance director Ian Irvin and Taiwan-based expat Tim Potter are behind Amazing Holdings, which has secured rights on a 27-acre plot of beachfront land in the Penghu islands.

The company intends to construct an upmarket hotel and entertainment complex that would attract high-rolling gambling tourists from Taiwan and mainland China - while also luring punters from Asia's current casino mecca, Macau.

Yes, that's right. The Penghu is a tropical paradise. And it's all a result of our factories moving to China.

Although gambling is not yet legal in Taiwan, plans are being developed as part of a government strategy to create a tourism industry. Irvin stresses that he has no guarantees that new gambling laws will be introduced, but he believes the process will be in motion by the third quarter of next year.

The planned change in the gambling laws is part of a scheme by the Taiwanese authorities to build a tourist economy and diversify away from traditional manufacturing industries.

Macau, which is only a short ferry trip away from Hong Kong, has built a hugely successful gambling industry in the past decade and is expected to pay out more in winnings than Las Vegas within the next two to three years.

[Hat Tip to Gambling Weblog]

[Taiwan]