The Commonwealth Casino Commission has unanimously voted to adopt draft regulations for Saipan\u2019s fledgling gaming industry.<\/p>\n
The commission held a meeting on Friday to adopt \u201cResolution No. 2015-001\u201d or the \u201cCommonwealth Casino Commission Rules and Regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edward Deleon Guerrero, the commission\u2019s executive director, said the regulations include provisions for the collection of fees, licensing of employees, and provisional licensing for vendors, among others.<\/p>\n
A provision for junket operators is still pending, he said, and will be tackled after another round of review by the commission.<\/p>\n
The regulations have been subject to an \u201cemergency adoption because of the government\u2019s urgent need for financial resources,\u201d the resolution states.<\/p>\n
Deleon Gurrero added that the regulations have been fast-tracked to allow the Saipan casino licensee\u2014Best Sunshine International, Ltd.\u2014to move forward on its planned temporary \u201clive\u201d training facility at the T Galleria in Garapan.<\/p>\n
The resolution states that the \u201c[Best Sunshine] is presently unable to hire and train employees or order gaming machines or equipment in order to implement the live training operations and other gaming activities without the existence of the Commonwealth Casino Commission Rules and Regulations, thereby hindering the job market for Commonwealth job seekers and jeopardizing the Commonwealth\u2019s ability to immediately collect urgently needed revenues from the casino industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Governor\u2019s signature<\/strong><\/p>\n Michael Ernest, the legal counsel of the casino commission, said the adopted casino regulations will now be forwarded to the office of Gov. Eloy S. Inos.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the governor concurs that the public requires the emergency adoption of these regulations, and that they are needed right now, he will sign it,\u201d Ernest said, adding that the regulations, signed on an emergency basis, will be good for 120 days.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce he [Inos] signs it, the document gets transferred to the Attorney General for publication in the Commonwealth Register,\u201d Ernest added.<\/p>\n If the governor disapproves the regulations, then the regulations will have no legal \u201ceffect.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawyer said the commission has made a \u201cdetermination\u201d that these regulations be adopted immediately, noting that the commission will again meet to promulgate the regulations which will open a three-day window for the general public to submit comments. \u201cThe commission will welcome these comments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Commission budget<\/strong><\/p>\n Deleon Guerrero said the casino commission will request a budget of $2.6 million from the government for its 2016 operations.<\/p>\n He said a part of the budget will be used for personnel hiring, noting that the casino commission is eyeing to hire 28 staff, and 20 more once the Best Sunshine temporary casino is completed.<\/p>\n The executive director stressed that the commission\u2019s budget did not come from local appropriations and is \u201cnot replenishing itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Deleon Guerrero said the commission is also eyeing to establish its own offices in May. Currently, the commission is housed at the Governor\u2019s Office building on Capital Hill, on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n He said the casino commission office is also expected to operate 24-7 once the casino in Garapan opens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commonwealth Casino Commission has unanimously voted to adopt draft regulations for Saipan\u2019s fledgling gaming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[1707,20,256,3339],"class_list":["post-195104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-best-sunshine-international","tag-budget","tag-casino","tag-edward-deleon-guerrero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}