{"id":22603,"date":"2021-09-14T11:41:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22603"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:42:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:42:56","slug":"ccc-calls-for-more-funds-to-continue-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-calls-for-more-funds-to-continue-running","title":{"rendered":"CCC calls for more funds to continue running"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) claims it is running out of money and has asked the government to approve US$1m “to keep the commission afloat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC)\u00a0<\/strong>is in a critical situation since\u00a0Imperial Pacific International<\/a> saw its licence suspended indefinitely for failing to comply with regulatory orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Yeom<\/strong>, the CCC\u2019s executive director, has sent a letter to Govenor Ralph DLG Torres and the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation Chairman Vinnie F. Sablan\u00a0requesting allocation of the available US$1m in casino licence fees\u00a0<\/strong>that was collected from IPI in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media reports, Yeom wrote: “We once again plead for your help in keeping the commission afloat\u00a0<\/strong>to enable the Commonwealth to continue its casino industry by maintaining the presence of the casino regulatory body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that as IPI failed to pay its 2020 annual regulatory fee, the commission is suffering from a severe budget shortfall. In June, the regulator announced\u00a020 layoffs without cause<\/a> to reduce operation costs. Yeom\u00a0<\/strong>said this represented\u00a0a 60 per cent workforce reduction<\/strong>\u00a0for CCC as some staff had already voluntarily resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Saipan Tribune, Yeom said: \u201cIt is sad and unfortunate, but a decision had to be made to smartly and cost-effectively defend the Commonwealth against any present and future legal challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commission chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero<\/strong>\u00a0said: “It is critical for the CNMI to enable the casino industry to be revived and continue to contribute to the Commonwealth\u2019s financial recovery efforts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNMI Governor in favour of allowing online gambling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While debates continue on the proposed Internet Gaming Act 2021<\/strong>, the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands has spoken in favour of allowing online gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a press conference, Torres said the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) needs additional income <\/strong>besides the funding it\u2019s received through federal programs and that online gambling could be a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Saipan tribune, he said: \u201cI hope we can have this industry in the next year or so<\/strong>. This will help all of us – the economy, the recruitment of new employees, new opportunities\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor said he hoped the move would have a knock-on effect, attracting more companies to start other businesses in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) claims it is running out of money and has asked the government to approve US$1m “to keep the commission afloat.”<\/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":"The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) in the Northern Mariana Islands faces a severe budget shortfall, requesting US$1m to maintain operations following Imperial Pacific International's (IPI) license suspension and non-payment of regulatory fees. Concurrently, Governor Ralph DLG Torres advocates for the approval of the Internet Gaming Act 2021, viewing online gambling as a critical new revenue stream for the CNMI's financial recovery.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission, Imperial Pacific International, Andrew Yeom, Ralph DLG Torres, Vinnie F. Sablan, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Saipan Tribune","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Impact?","query":"What are the immediate and long-term implications of the Commonwealth Casino Commission's financial shortfall on its regulatory oversight capabilities and the operational stability of the CNMI gaming market?"},{"label":"Online Gaming Framework?","query":"How will the proposed Internet Gaming Act 2021 establish a sustainable funding model for the regulatory body and what specific B2B\/B2C licensing and governance frameworks are being considered for this new vertical?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[23911,22674,23907],"class_list":["post-22603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-ipi","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22603","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=22603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22623,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22603\/revisions\/22623"}],"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=22603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}