Foreign casinos show odds against China's cash curbs

Saipan

FOR evidence of the odds stacked against China's battle to stop the flight of cash battering its currency and draining its reserves, look no further than the tiny Pacific island of Saipan, which has hit the jackpot with a flood of Chinese money at its new casino.

Thousands of kilometres from the Chinese mainland, the US-administered island of 50,000 people is festooned with signs written in Chinese and stuffed with Chinese supermarkets, restaurants and karaoke parlours serving the 200,000 Chinese visitors that arrived this year.