Another bill to amend the casino law was introduced during a House session yesterday. This time the amendment is to allow those under the age of 21 to transit through the Saipan casino, as current enforcement of smoking enclosures in the T-Galleria mall have reportedly forced tourists \u201cto go around\u201d the casino by stepping outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat bill intends to allow those minors to go through the casino floor along with parents,\u201d House Speaker Rafael Demapan (R-Saipan), the bill\u2019s author, told reporters yesterday. \u201cRight now, for them to go through they would have to go outside DFS and by doing that, as DFS is very close to the roads\u201d there are safety concerns.<\/p>\n
With the bill in effect there will be \u201ca designated pathway for those kids who are less than 21 for them to walk to one place to another,\u201d said Demapan.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s purpose is for \u201cthe safety of the kids and that\u2019s basically it,\u201d he added, calling it \u201ctourist-friendly.\u201d \u201cTo my understanding, it is also been requested by DFS.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDemapan\u2019s bill states that between 2,500 to 3,000 people are affected by the current regulation, directly or indirectly, to bar individuals under 21 years of age except for employees from the gaming areas of the casino.<\/p>\n
The bill looks to gaming areas in Nevada and Colorado, where those under 21 are allowed to be present in gaming area for the sole purpose of making their way through, \u201cas long as these individuals do not loiter or gamble.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill argues the practice should also be adopted by the Commonwealth to help tourists avoid the unpleasant experience of heavy traffic, and ease strain on tour operators who must supervise these groups\u2014who may have to be split, if minors have to go around the mall, the bill states.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026One lone supervisor cannot supervise both adults and the minors,\u201d the bill states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CNMI can ill afford to inconvenience any tourists, particularly those with young adults and children,\u201d it adds. \u201c\u2026Finally, we cannot and should not wait for a traffic accident to occur before we take remedial measures.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another bill to amend the casino law was introduced during a House session yesterday. This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[256,300,65,163],"class_list":["post-219534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-dfs","tag-house","tag-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219534","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}