{"id":21337,"date":"2021-08-10T13:21:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T16:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=21337"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:47:03","slug":"gaming-companies-against-new-licence-fee-in-n-mariana-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/gaming-companies-against-new-licence-fee-in-n-mariana-islands","title":{"rendered":"Gaming companies against new licence fee in N. Mariana islands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mariana Entertainment and MP Holdings have filed a complaint against the CNMI government over an increase to the e-gaming licence fee signed off last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Superior Court of the Northern Mariana Islands<\/strong>\u00a0has received a complaint from Mariana Entertainment LLC and MP Holdings LLC, the owners of\u00a0Club 88<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Saipan Vegas Resort\u00a0<\/strong>lodged against the Department of Finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit has been lodged against a new law that doubles the islands’ e-gaming licence fee<\/strong>. The companies warn that if the increased fee is not suspended,\u00a070 of their employees will lose their jobs\u00a0<\/strong>and the entire electronic gaming industry on Saipan will disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Marianas Variety, the law signed by\u00a0Gov Ralph DLG Torres\u00a0<\/strong>imposes an additional fee of 15 per cent on all electronic gaming devices on Saipan, including machines located within e-gaming facilities or hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies, via attorney\u00a0Michael W. Dotts<\/strong>, stated: “A declaratory judgment is necessary to determine the rights and obligations of the parties as to\u00a0whether the licence fee can be lawfully assessed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is necessary and proper at this time so that Plaintiffs can confirm their rights and obligations as a licence holder. It is also necessary so that Plaintiffs can establish as a matter of law that Defendant has no right to collect the licence fee.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill was proposed by Rep. Ralph Yumul<\/strong>, the brother of the CEO of\u00a0Imperial Pacific International<\/a>, a direct competitor to the slot parlour, which the e-gaming operators say causes a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plaintiffs also argued that the Saipan local delegation did not give the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office the required 30 days to review the bill<\/strong>\u00a0before it was enacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proposed Internet Gaming Act 2021 continues to raise questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Questions continue to be raised over\u00a0potential online gaming<\/a>\u00a0in the Northern Mariana Islands as proposed by\u00a0House Bill 22-47<\/strong>.\u00a0Operators have pointed out that an online gambling market based out of Saipan is likely to be severely limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the CNMI is a US protectorate governed by federal law, the island would not be able to take bets from US states<\/strong>. It would also be forbidden from accepting bets from countries where online gambling is illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential online gaming operators note that this would leave the local market as the only potential market online gambling, and that is characterised by low levels of disposable income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Klebanow<\/strong>, principal of C3 Gaming Group, said: \u201cThe local population is well-served by some slot halls and video poker parlours. Given the relatively small residential population, it is doubtful that an online operation would generate much revenue<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Yeom<\/a>, Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director, had talked up the possibility of online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cInternet gaming can be a great thing for the Commonwealth if done correctly. \u201cI can assure you there are many ways to go about it<\/strong>. But I am not the one to tell how the operation is set up because I am not here to give that information\u2026. I am here as a regulator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mariana Entertainment and MP Holdings have filed a complaint against the CNMI government over an increase to the e-gaming licence fee signed off last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Mariana Entertainment and MP Holdings have filed a lawsuit against the CNMI government over a newly enacted law that doubles e-gaming license fees and imposes an additional 15% fee on devices, threatening the local industry's viability and 70 jobs. The complaint alleges a conflict of interest in the legislative process and procedural irregularities. Concurrently, discussions around a proposed Internet Gaming Act highlight severe market limitations for online gambling in the US protectorate.","focusai_entities":"Mariana Entertainment LLC, MP Holdings LLC, Club 88, Saipan Vegas Resort, CNMI government, Department of Finance, Gov Ralph DLG Torres, Michael W. Dotts, Rep. Ralph Yumul, Imperial Pacific International, Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office, C3 Gaming Group, Andrew Klebanow, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Andrew Yeom","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, US","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Legal Precedent","query":"What legal precedents might this declaratory judgment case set for future regulatory changes impacting licensed gaming operators in US protectorates?"},{"label":"Online Market Viability","query":"Given the federal law constraints and local market demographics, what specific B2B or B2C licensing models could realistically generate sustainable NGR for an online gaming vertical in the CNMI?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157,158],"tags":[229,512],"class_list":["post-21337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling","tag-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21356,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21337\/revisions\/21356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}