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.
