Liechtenstein votes resoundingly against banning casinos

ZURICH, Jan 29 —Voters in Liechtenstein nowadays roundly turned down a proposed ban on casinos in a referendum that has polarised the tiny principality and its 40,000 citizens.

With six casinos dotted across the state that is a tenth of the size of London, the microstate has been dubbed the “Las Vegas of the Alps” amid punters.

Professional-ban arguments on concerns like gambling addiction and possible injury to the rich nation’s popularity have been, even so, resoundingly swept aside given that 73% of all those who voted rejected the ban and 27 per cent backed it, with a turnout of 70 per cent, in accordance to the official count revealed on the internet.

The referendum, and the signatures needed to induce it, were introduced about by tension team IG Volksmeinung, shaped to combat the “casino flood”.

They argue that the fledgling business hazards tarnishing a nationwide graphic that the state has labored tricky to restore. The country was on an international blacklist of tax havens until it started easing financial institution secrecy legal guidelines more than a decade in the past.

Prior to the vote, the country’s prince spoke out from the ban, as did the govt, which mentioned the gambling market is an important supply of money and argued that a ban was also drastic a evaluate to deal with troubles like gambling dependancy. — Reuters