{"id":22520,"date":"2021-09-10T13:27:30","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T16:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22520"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:48:21","slug":"cnmi-governor-willing-to-revise-new-e-gaming-licence-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cnmi-governor-willing-to-revise-new-e-gaming-licence-fee","title":{"rendered":"CNMI Governor willing to revise new e-gaming licence fee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gov Ralph DLG Torres has said he is willing to form a working group in order to revise the new law that doubles the Northern Mariana Islands\u2019 e-gaming licence fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.-\u00a0Gov Ralph DLG Torres\u00a0<\/strong>has said he is willing to form a working group to devise a more reasonable increase for\u00a0e-gaming licence fees<\/strong>. The news comes after\u00a0Mariana Entertainment and MP Holdings<\/a>\u00a0asked the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation to amend the increased fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current 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. He has now said that he hopes a group can look at how to assist the affected e-gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torres said: “I understand that\u00a0the business entities are struggling with the new fees\u00a0<\/strong>but I believe that there has also got to be a solution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cWe do need additional revenue, and\u00a0I have asked the Legislature to look at additional revenue-generating bills<\/strong>, but I\u2019m not asking the Legislature to impose additional taxes on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increased fee 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

MP Holdings says it has\u00a0had to close its Club 88 venue in Garapan, laying off 30 workers as a result.<\/strong> Companies<\/a>\u00a0also warned 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov Ralph DLG Torres has said he is willing to form a working group in order to revise the new law that doubles the Northern Mariana Islands\u2019 e-gaming licence fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Governor Ralph DLG Torres of the Northern Mariana Islands is considering forming a working group to revise a recently enacted law that significantly increased e-gaming license fees. This follows strong opposition from operators like Mariana Entertainment and MP Holdings, who cite severe financial strain, job losses, and potential industry collapse due to the new fees and an alleged conflict of interest. The Governor acknowledges the need for revenue but seeks a more sustainable solution for affected e-gaming operators.","focusai_entities":"Ralph DLG Torres, Mariana Entertainment, MP Holdings, Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation, Ralph Yumul, Imperial Pacific International, Club 88","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, Garapan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Analysis","query":"What specific economic impact assessments were conducted by the NMI Legislature prior to implementing the e-gaming license fee increase, and how do these align with current operator projections of job losses and market contraction?"},{"label":"Governance & Conflict of Interest","query":"Given the alleged conflict of interest involving Rep. Ralph Yumul, what specific governance frameworks are in place within the NMI legislative process to ensure impartiality and prevent undue influence on regulatory decisions impacting market competition?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157,158],"tags":[23911,512],"class_list":["post-22520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22520","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=22520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22530,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22520\/revisions\/22530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}