Governor Ralph DLG Torres has said that the CCC’s call for funding is not urgent and said the islands should continue to analyse different options, including e-gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Northern Mariana Islands.- While the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) continues to face economic difficulties,\u00a0governor Ralph DLG Torres has minimised the issue<\/strong>. He’s said he sees no urgency to hand US$1m in funds to the CCC now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead,\u00a0he said he was in favour of analysing the possibility of allowing online gaming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: “I know that there\u2019s a proposal for e-gaming. Maybe that\u2019s something that we can look into.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added: “We have to see how we can maximize the casino commission\u2019s role, whether it should start monitoring the poker industry and\/or some of the amusement activities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The governor said the government will communicate with Andrew Yeom<\/strong>, the executive director of the committee, and his board of directors on how the casino industry will move forward in the next six to eight months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The regulator\u2019s executive director<\/a>\u00a0has said that the CCC is down to just\u00a012 employees\u00a0<\/strong>including himself due to the funding crisis. Before the Covid-19 pandemic,\u00a0the CCC had over 50 employees<\/strong>\u00a0but in June, the regulator announced\u00a020 layoffs without cause<\/a>\u00a0to reduce operational costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeom had warned that the CCC will have to cease operations by April 2022 if it doesn\u2019t get new funding and has called on the government to approve the\u00a0allocation of the available US$1m in casino licence fees<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>collected from IPI in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeom shared his views<\/a>\u00a0to the House Gaming Committee at the invitation of Edwin Propst, committee chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before sharing his views, Yeom clarified that he was only \u201ctrying to lay out the facts\u201d<\/strong> and insisted on the need to examine the bill\u2019s \u201cpros and cons.\u201d However, he said that allowing online gambling could bring up to 2.1m online users annually<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few weeks ago Yeom predicted gaming revenue from 2025 onwards could be approximately US$450m. However, Propst said he wants to be cautious regarding the possible costs of regulating online gambling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: \u201cWe were promised a US$7bn industry by Imperial Pacific International, and fast-forward to today, the casino commission is in need of US$1m<\/a> to continue to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nYeom’s take on online gaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n