Guangdong will stop granting new licences for entertainment venues such as nightclubs, sauna houses and gaming parlours in a move to crack down on vice, reports Information Times.

Exceptions will be made for newly built hotels and restaurants, where bars, discos or sauna services are deemed necessary. But they will be subjected to strict scrutiny, said the provincial Public Security Bureau.

Entertainment venues are blamed for most of the prostitution, gambling and drug activities that go on in the province.

About 90 per cent of drug users arrested in raids on Guangzhou's entertainment venues are youngsters, said police.

In a policy that went into effect at the end of last year, the licences of entertainment venues are suspended if more than 20 people are found using drugs on the premises over the course of a year.

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