The government has suggested that two resorts, funded by Chinese investors, will be given casino licences. This means that Cairns and the Gold Coast would become the nation’s only regional cities with more than one casino.
Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung is financing the Cairns development and the ASF consortium is backing the Gold Coast proposal.
Anti-gambling campaigners are unhappy about this turn of events, and have suggested that casinos are largely funded by locals – which will cause huge problems for the community.
As quoted in The Guardian, deputy premier Jeff Seeney suggested that these two new developments could be a ‘boon’ for the tourism industry.
“These projects have the potential to create thousands of new jobs in these two key tourism centres,” he said.
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