{"id":777001596,"date":"2023-01-18T20:14:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T23:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777001596"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:25:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:25:43","slug":"commonwealth-casino-commission-shuts-down-due-to-lack-of-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/commonwealth-casino-commission-shuts-down-due-to-lack-of-funding","title":{"rendered":"Commonwealth Casino Commission shuts down due to lack of funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CCC director Andrew Yeom informed the commission’s eight remaining staff members of the governor’s instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC)\u00a0<\/strong>has finally been advised to suspend its operations due to a lack of funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news was confirmed by the CCC director Andrew Yeom to Mariana’s Variety. He also informed the commission\u2019s eight remaining staff members about the governor’s instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commission employees received their last paycheck on January 13, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commission was funded by an annual regulatory fee of $3.15m, which Imperial Pacific International (IPI), the sole exclusive casino licensee, has not paid since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last August, Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Martin Mendiola<\/strong> had already advised the regulator was \u201cat the finish line of its budget<\/a>\u201d due to IPI\u2019s failure to pay its licence fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the House Gaming Committee, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, said they have no intention of abandoning the island’s casino industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its committee is also aware of the pending court-ordered arbitration between the committee and IPI, which requires the presence of a regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last November, the then-Governor. Ralph DLG Torres\u00a0awarded $350,000 in court-authorized arbitration costs\u00a0and appointed Thomas J. Brewer, a Member of the American Arbitration Association, as an arbitrator for a dispute between IPI and the CCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same month, the regulator reported that its revenue for the fiscal year 2022 was $15,001<\/a>. One dollar was the commission\u2019s share of CNMI revenue appropriated from the general fund, while $15,000 was the \u201cother regulatory fee\u201d paid by casino operator Imperial Pacific International\u2019s vendors and service providers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CCC director Andrew Yeom informed the commission’s eight remaining staff members of the governor’s instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26855,"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 is suspending operations due to a critical lack of funding, primarily caused by Imperial Pacific International (IPI), its sole exclusive casino licensee, failing to pay its $3.15 million annual regulatory fee since 2019. This cessation of regulatory oversight occurs amidst ongoing court-ordered arbitration between the CCC and IPI, raising significant concerns for the island's gaming vertical and its governance framework.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission, Andrew Yeom, Imperial Pacific International, Martin Mendiola, House Gaming Committee, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, Ralph DLG Torres, Thomas J. Brewer, American Arbitration Association","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, CNMI","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Vacuum Impact?","query":"What are the immediate and long-term implications of the CCC's operational suspension on regulatory compliance and governance frameworks for the CNMI's gaming vertical, particularly concerning the ongoing IPI arbitration?"},{"label":"IPI's Future Obligations?","query":"Given the CCC's suspension, how will the Northern Mariana Islands enforce Imperial Pacific International's outstanding regulatory fee obligations and ensure adherence to its exclusive casino license terms?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[21613],"class_list":["post-777001596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001596","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=777001596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001598,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001596\/revisions\/777001598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777001596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}