The balmy holiday island of Hainan, long touted as a place where the mainland could liberalise gambling, will not permit casinos, officials said this week.
The decision may dampen investment appetite from international and national developers betting on stellar profits in the southern province.
Luo Baoming, Hainan's Communist Party chief, and Wang Yong, the mayor of the resort city of Sanya, told a briefing at the mainland's annual parliamentary meeting on Thursday that casinos would never be allowed to operate there.
"We cannot at all allow Hainan to operate casinos," Luo said, according to Xinhua.
Casino gambling is illegal in China outside Macau. In 2013, the local government on Hainan shut down a casino bar that had been operating illegally after a report drew attention to it.
Hainan has attracted international developers in the past two years, including InterContinental Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and casino operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, which are eyeing a surge in upscale tourism on the mainland.
