The citizens of the principality of Liechtenstein decided today in a referendum to keep the country's six casinos open, one of the main sources of tax revenue for this microstate on the banks of the Rhine, nestled between Switzerland and Austria.
The 'no' to the prohibition won with a clear 73.3% of the votes in a referendum that, if it had gone ahead, would have forced the betting houses to close in five years, indicated the digital version of Volksblatt, the main newspaper of this country of 39,000 inhabitants. Participation in the popular consultation was high, 70% (10,383 of the 14,383 citizens of the principality called to vote).
The referendum had been called at the request of a platform that defended the end of gambling in the country on the grounds that it encouraged gambling and gave a bad name to a country that had already had to deal with the image of a tax haven (although has progressively reduced bank secrecy and is no longer considered as such by the OECD).
