Taiwan votes to allow gambling

The residents of Matsu, a Taiwanese archipelago of 19 islands in the Taiwan Strait, voted yesterday in a referendum to allow gambling and approved the construction of a casino resort. The approval for the casino resort is just the first step in the process - the government first needs to draft and enact gambling legislation. Matsu was selected because of its proximity to the bustling cities of Xiamen,Fuzhou and QuanZhou in Fujian Province, China, where significant numbers of wealthy Chinese residents live. The Matsu casino resort is expected to compete with customers from China who frequent the casinos in Macau.