‘Poker operators oppose lump sum payment’

Poker operators are opposed to the lump sum payment of license fees, as embodied in a bill now pending in the upper chamber, said Sen. Joseph M. Mendiola.

He said this was the conclusion based on the public hearings his panel had conducted separately on Tinian and Rota last week.

Mendiola chairs the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, which is now reviewing the bill that aims to revert the poker licensure fee payment to lump sum payment rather than on a quarterly basis.

“We went to Tinian and Rota and the majority of them said that the economy is really bad. They are asking to continue the way it is now, which is on a per quarter basis,” said the senator.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Justo Quitugua, said that the one-time payment would boost collection efforts per fiscal year.

The present setup has allegedly given some operators leeway to underreport activities or make excuses about broken machines to avoid paying the remaining fees.

The government currently charges a total of $12,000 for each poker machine on Saipan, $8,000 on Rota, and $6,000 on Tinian.

There are about 1,200 machines on Saipan, about 300 on Rota, and a few hundreds on Tinian.

Last year, the Finance Department reported a significant decline in its poker collection, prompting it to tap the Department of Commerce this year to tighten enforcement.

The two agencies recently signed a memorandum of understanding transferring the responsibility of collecting poker license fees to Commerce for a certain time.

Two other House bills are pushing for the lump sum payment of poker fees.

The amended version of H.B. 14-267 or the proposed Poker and Amusement Machines Control and Regulation Act, aims to bring back the annual payment of the license fee “to significantly improve the cash flow in the general fund.” The bill also provides a registration system of $100 per machine.

The bill, authored by Rep. Clyde Norita, is under discussion at the House of Representatives.

Meantime, H.B. 14-366, which recently passed the House, does not only aim to increase the poker fee by an additional $4,000 to subsidize the fuel surcharge, but also mandates that the payment be done at once upon the renewal of each license. The bill is now before the Senate for action.