A local bill that seeks to amend the poker laws to allow \u201cadult gaming machines\u201d to operate wherever gaming machines are allowed was delayed after several lawmakers declined to vote on the bill without first further reviewing it at the committee level.<\/p>\n
Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegate chair Rep. John Paul P. Sablan\u2019s (R-Saipan) House Local Bill 20-47, which seeks to amend the Saipan Zoning Law of 2013 to allow adult gambling machine businesses to operate in \u201cany zoning district where an adult gambling machine business is permitted\u201d and is more than 200 feet from a church, public or private school, park, or playground.<\/p>\n
Introduced in yesterday\u2019s SNILD session, chair Sablan also moved to allow the bill to be placed on the bill calendar for the session, however several lawmakers opposed the bill.<\/p>\n
One of those who opposed acting on H.L.B. 20-47 was Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan), who pointed out that Zoning administrator Therese Ogumoro requested that the delegation oppose the bill, said that he had a \u201cproblem with voting on a bill without a committee report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) said that the delegation should not \u201crush into [acting on] it too quickly,\u201d and requested that a public hearing be conducted on the bill.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the delegation voted 8-11 and opposed moving the bill to the bill calendar for the day. <\/p>\n
Reps. Joseph \u201cLee Pan\u201d Guerrero (R-Saipan), Alice Igitol (R-Saipan), Gregorio Sablan Jr. (R-Saipan), Francisco Aguon (R-Saipan), Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), chair Sablan, House Speaker Rafael Demapan (R-Saipan), and vice speaker Janice Maratita (R-Saipan) voted for placing the bill on the calendar.<\/p>\n
Reps. Blas Jonathan Attao (Ind-Saipan), Donald Barcinas (R-Saipan), Jose Itibus (R-Saipan), Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan), Francisco Dela Cruz (R-Saipan), Angel Demapan (R-Saipan), Sen. Sixto Igisomar, minority leader Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), Propst, and Palacios voted against the motion.<\/p>\n
Speaker Demapan told the delegation members after the motion was defeated that placing it on the bill calendar does not necessarily mean that the bill would be passed.<\/p>\n
In an interview, author and chair Sablan said that the intention of the bill was to create \u201ca fair playing field\u201d for poker parlors in a somewhat literal sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my bill [H.L.B. 20-47], it\u2019s whether you are mixed commercial area or not,\u201d said chair Sablan, referring to the current setup of having poker parlors operate on certain mixed commercial zones along a stretch of road while other poker establishments also on mixed commercial areas but on different roads are not allowed.<\/p>\n
He added that poker parlors have been reportedly filing lawsuits against Zoning because of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cStriking out [the street name] and just [being] mixed commercial, you are allowed [to operate a poker parlor establishment],\u201d delegation chair Sablan said, was the intent of the bill.<\/p>\n
Comments of zoning administrator Ogumoro clearly stated that the zoning board was against the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this bill intends to bring \u2018consistency\u2019 in poker operations in one district, Zoning believes this bill will allow poker [parlors] to operate in all areas zoned as mixed commercial throughout the island,\u201d she said, adding that it would \u201cundoubtedly create the uncertainty of the protection of compatible uses from those which are incompatible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing Saipan Local Law 18-5, which regulates adult gambling machine businesses to promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the Commonwealth citizens and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations to \u201cprevent the deleterious location and concentration of adult businesses and, in particular, to separate adult businesses from family-oriented uses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cS.L.L. 18-5 was enacted to ensure that adult gambling machines are centralized within certain geographical areas,\u201d added Ogumoro.<\/p>\n
Ogumoro reminded the delegation that mixed commercial zones are situated all around the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllowing poker establishments to operate in some mixed commercial districts while not allowing them in other mixed commercial districts should not be interpreted as \u2018inconsistent\u2019 nor \u2018misleading,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to Ogumoro, the zoning of permitted locations for poker parlors was never intended to designate a particular zoning district for poker establishments but rather to designate areas for poker parlor operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth S.L.L. 18-5 and 19-4 were carefully crafted to ensure that poker parlors remain within designated zones within commercialized areas which are visible and can be easily accessed, monitored, and controlled for public safety and welfare purposes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Chair Sablan said H.L.B. 20-47 would most probably be referred to a committee of the delegation for further review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A local bill that seeks to amend the poker laws to allow \u201cadult gaming machines\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13537,10239,5022,17953],"class_list":["post-266917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chair-sablan","tag-gregorio-sablan-jr","tag-saipan-zoning-law","tag-speaker-demapan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266917","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}