Presidential polls results could spell trouble for Taiwan’s gaming expansion plans

The results of Taiwan’s recently held elections could mean trouble for the country’s prospects of gaming expansion.

Over the weekend, nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen won by a landslide to become Taiwan’s first female president. This is also the first time DPP will control the presidency and the legislature, taking over the reins from the pro-China Koumintang (MKT) or Nationalist Party, which has ruled Taiwan for the past eight years.

Tsai has been vocal about her anti-gaming stance during the recent election cycle, and in 2009, she even went as far as employing DPP’s strengths in grassroots organizing to defeat the proposal of building a casino in the island of Penghu.

Meanwhile, the change in leadership has already drawn the ire of Beijing, which in an editorial carried by official Xinhua news agency, said “the DPP’s return rule poses grave challenges to cross-Strait relations.”