Deadly clashes last week between two villages in Dongfang city, Hainan, represent the tip of the iceberg of a growing underground gambling industry that is turning the once peaceful island into a hot spot of gang crime, a local professor has said.
More than 1,000 residents from Gancheng and Baoshang villages waged a three-day gang fight last Monday that left one person dead and six injured. The mob also smashed and burned government buildings, police vehicles, power supplies and shops.
The city government said on Tuesday that the villagers had been at odds with each other for a long time. A fight between two teenage students sparked the riot, it said.
But villagers said they had lived in harmony until illegal casinos started appearing, Outlook magazine reported on Saturday.
Shi Wen, secretary general of the Hainan provincial government, told the Xinhua-run magazine that “entertainment centres” - implying casinos - had manipulated the riot from behind the scenes.
He said the “centres” were highly competitive, and attacks on competitors in other villages were common. When the March 23 incident erupted, they directed the villager’s anger to benefit their business interests.
Mr. Shi used the term “entertainment centre” instead of “casino” because gambling is illegal on the mainland. The possibility that underground casinos might be spreading across Hainan, particularly in rural areas, is not something the provincial government wants to admit.
Since the central government has stemmed the flow of officials and senior managers of state-owned enterprises going to Macau or overseas to gamble, Hainan has become a haven for mainland gamblers.
A Gancheng villager, who refused to be named, said every village had several casinos. Crime and violence had surged since they sprung up several years ago. Farmers were growing fearful for their safety because officials and the police were the guardians of the casinos and gambling throughout the night, he said.
The boundary between Gancheng and Baoshang is a river called the “Thanksgiving”. In the past, the relationship between the two villages was peaceful and friendly. Farmers often crossed the river to drink tea, exchange produce and make bonds of marriage.
But the situation has changed in recent years. Young people have been attacked in the woods, fishermen knifed on the beach, and blade-wielding gangsters have assaulted lovers on the river’s bridge.
At the peak of the conflict two weeks ago, more than 200 Baoshang high school students were driven off campus by students from Gancheng. Since then, no teenagers have dared cross the bridge.
A Hainan University sociologist said that underground gambling had a long history in the province, but the number of casinos had surged in recent years because of an influx of gamblers from Guangdong.
“Gancheng is famous [for gambling], but is not the biggest. In every village, you can find at least one casino. Some are big and sophisticated, with lottery machines, CCTV, security guards and all the essential facilities you would find in a formal one,” the professor said.
“To a few villagers it is the ultimate source of income, but to most it opens the gates of hell. When a casino is established in a village, every household is affected. One cannot run a covert business in a small community without intruding on the lives of others.
“Hainan farmers like to gamble. Why? Well, on one beach there are the world’s finest hotels and golf courses and on the other just slums. The extreme income inequality prompts people to dream of getting rich overnight.”
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Casinos blamed for clashes on Hainan
Village rivalry tip of a bigger crime problem
Stephen Chen
30 March 2009
Deadly clashes last week between two villages in Dongfang city, Hainan, represent the tip of the iceberg of a growing underground gambling industry that is turning the once peaceful island into a hot spot of gang crime, a local professor has said.
More than 1,000 residents from Gancheng and Baoshang villages waged a three-day gang fight last Monday that left one person dead and six injured. The mob also smashed and burned government buildings, police vehicles, power supplies and shops.
The city government said on Tuesday that the villagers had been at odds with each other for a long time. A fight between two teenage students sparked the riot, it said.
But villagers said they had lived in harmony until illegal casinos started appearing, Outlook magazine reported on Saturday.
Shi Wen, secretary general of the Hainan provincial government, told the Xinhua-run magazine that “entertainment centres” - implying casinos - had manipulated the riot from behind the scenes.
He said the “centres” were highly competitive, and attacks on competitors in other villages were common. When the March 23 incident erupted, they directed the villager’s anger to benefit their business interests.
Mr. Shi used the term “entertainment centre” instead of “casino” because gambling is illegal on the mainland. The possibility that underground casinos might be spreading across Hainan, particularly in rural areas, is not something the provincial government wants to admit.
Since the central government has stemmed the flow of officials and senior managers of state-owned enterprises going to Macau or overseas to gamble, Hainan has become a haven for mainland gamblers.
A Gancheng villager, who refused to be named, said every village had several casinos. Crime and violence had surged since they sprung up several years ago. Farmers were growing fearful for their safety because officials and the police were the guardians of the casinos and gambling throughout the night, he said.
The boundary between Gancheng and Baoshang is a river called the “Thanksgiving”. In the past, the relationship between the two villages was peaceful and friendly. Farmers often crossed the river to drink tea, exchange produce and make bonds of marriage.
But the situation has changed in recent years. Young people have been attacked in the woods, fishermen knifed on the beach, and blade-wielding gangsters have assaulted lovers on the river’s bridge.
At the peak of the conflict two weeks ago, more than 200 Baoshang high school students were driven off campus by students from Gancheng. Since then, no teenagers have dared cross the bridge.
A Hainan University sociologist said that underground gambling had a long history in the province, but the number of casinos had surged in recent years because of an influx of gamblers from Guangdong.
“Gancheng is famous [for gambling], but is not the biggest. In every village, you can find at least one casino. Some are big and sophisticated, with lottery machines, CCTV, security guards and all the essential facilities you would find in a formal one,” the professor said.
“To a few villagers it is the ultimate source of income, but to most it opens the gates of hell. When a casino is established in a village, every household is affected. One cannot run a covert business in a small community without intruding on the lives of others.
“Hainan farmers like to gamble. Why? Well, on one beach there are the world’s finest hotels and golf courses and on the other just slums. The extreme income inequality prompts people to dream of getting rich overnight.”
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