Emergency action needed

The economy is in a state of emergency. All indicators are at all time low. Things have never been worse in the CNMI. Not only do we need a solution for our economic problems, but also we cannot afford any solution that requires a lot of time and money. Factories, educational tourism, and financial services are all good ideas, but with 20-year time horizon and required investments of billions of dollars. None of that will help us now. They’re great ideas, but that’s like telling someone who’s having a heart attack to eat fewer steaks—a long-term solution for an emergency situation. We need an emergency solution. A casino can bring money and businesses quickly to the CNMI. Everyone knows that Asian tourists love to gamble. Do Macau and Singapore have casinos? Of course. But in order for our casino to be successful, we don’t need to beat Macau and Singapore. All we need is a small fraction of the tourists they get. No one here thinks that Saipan will become a bigger gambling destination than Macau. But if we just get 1 percent of Macau’s gambling revenue, just 1 percent of our economic problems will be solved. Macau makes $36 billion per year from gambling. One percent of that would be $360 million per year. Just 1 percent of the business Macau is doing is all we need.

What about the worries of gambling addiction, drugs, and property crime? Look around us. Look in the newspaper any day. Isn’t Saipan already full of gambling addiction, drugs, and property crime? Caused not only by poker parlors in villages, but also by unemployment, poverty, and economic hopelessness. The casino proposal takes poker parlors out of the villages and gives our people economic hope, government revenue, and private-sector jobs.

What about our image? And the people who say they don’t want Saipan to be associated with gambling? Do you prefer that Saipan is associated with bankruptcy, people not having enough to eat, families having to choose between paying CUC and buying medicine? We’re in a real emergency. We need drastic action, such as a casino. I respect religion, but is it really Christian to let our children go hungry and to let so many of our people be forced into crime? Would you rather have hunger, theft, even violence, because of the lack of jobs and lack of hope, just to avoid the sin of gambling? Choices are never easy. I know some people consider gambling immoral. But what is going on right now with our economy? Isn’t that more immoral? Let’s take action. Let’s bring something new and hopeful to Saipan. Join with us to do something, and in this emergency situation, that something is the casino.