Acting commission chair Ralph S. Demapan said commissioners had to meet even without staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) <\/strong>has held its monthly meeting despite\u00a0<\/strong>suspending its operations<\/a>\u00a0last week due to a lack of funds. Chairman\u00a0Edward C. Deleon Guerrero\u00a0was not present but joined the meeting via video conference along with commissioner Martin Mendiola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acting commission chair Ralph S. Demapan and commissioners Mario Taitano<\/strong> and Ramon Dela Cruz<\/strong> were present in person. Also in attendance was senate floor leader Corina L. Magofna<\/strong>, who chairs the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development & Programs and Gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the meeting, Demapan said commissioners were ready to work with the Palacios-Apatang government to find solutions to problems facing the islands’ gaming sector, including the lawsuit involving\u00a0Imperial Pacific International<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He noted that on January 19, the committee received a copy of a memo from the governor urging the board members appointed by his predecessor to offer to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demapan said he understood that it is common practice to ask for a courtesy resignation when a new government takes office but cited Public Law 18-56, which states casino commissioners can only be removed with cause.\u00a0He also said he believed the islands should not <\/strong>abandon the potential of the casino industry <\/strong>to generate revenue for the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As revealed by Mariana’s Variety, the commission submitted a letter to former governor Ralph DLG Torres<\/strong> requesting funding to renew the contracts of nine employees for at least one year or until the dispute with IPI is resolved. However, the financial assistance did not materialise, according to Demapan. Dela Cruz has argued that the commission should also receive a portion of the proceeds from the\u00a0sale of IPI assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acting commission chair Ralph S. Demapan said commissioners had to meet even without staff.<\/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 facing operational suspension due to a lack of funds and staff, amidst political pressure for commissioners to resign. This situation, compounded by ongoing litigation involving Imperial Pacific International (IPI), raises significant concerns regarding the stability of the jurisdiction's gaming sector governance and its potential for revenue generation.","focusai_entities":"Ralph S. Demapan, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Martin Mendiola, Mario Taitano, Ramon Dela Cruz, Corina L. Magofna, Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development & Programs and Gaming, Palacios-Apatang government, Imperial Pacific International, Ralph DLG Torres","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Solutions?","query":"What specific legislative or executive actions are being considered by the Palacios-Apatang government to secure sustainable funding for the Commonwealth Casino Commission's operational continuity and staff retention?"},{"label":"IPI Lawsuit Impact?","query":"How might the ongoing lawsuit involving Imperial Pacific International and the proposed sale of its assets impact the Northern Mariana Islands' gaming sector, particularly regarding potential revenue generation and the CCC's financial stability?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16331,156],"tags":[21613],"class_list":["post-777001845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elsewhere-news","category-regulation-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001845","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=777001845"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001849,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001845\/revisions\/777001849"}],"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=777001845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}