Casino: Maximize revenue

In the calm of the evening, I’d sit at the lanai and listen to the sound of silence broken occasionally by gentle breeze and passing birds. Casino, specifically, its sustainability keep bouncing back into my mind.

Still a skeptic, though, on this issue. Have done sufficient research to understand why it is neither the lucrative nor the fiscal salvation here as promoted by paid peddlers of glitz and glamour. Haven’t worked up the callousness to trash “Our Way of Life.”

But it seems the trade winds have shifted on the bullish offer by both applicants to salvage various programs now at the edge of fiscal cliff: the promise of salvaging these programs from bankruptcy!

Meanwhile, Gov. Eulogio S. Inos refuses change his casino law to open it up to at least two licenses. A good number of legislators wanted some form of accommodation to maximize revenue generation. Give Marianas Star and Best Sunshine their licenses but leave two more slots. How do we know that there aren’t others outside far more equipped with the financial wherewithal?

Still have that insightful intuition that nearby competition would annihilate our “instant soba” casino industry. Once the Osaka casino industry opens up six years from now, ours is history.

Where’s our share of the wealthy players’ market? It’s known as “basic infrastructure,” home town wealthy supporting the industry when the rich from without don’t show up. Do we substitute it lining up NAP recipients to scaffold casino operations here? It’s simple arithmetic, lai!

But then admirable the bullish offer from the two applicants. If I may revise your list so we rally behind that juicy steak we’ve salivated for as combined simpletons and stray hungry dogs. They are:

-Pay up the Fund’s $779 million unfunded liability so it isn’t sent into internment.

-Pay all cost associated with the blind implementation of Nobamacare.

-Pay all increases to power bills sending the check to CUC.

-Pay all increases in food commodities and gasoline.

-Fund establishment of cyber classrooms Marianas-wide.

-Place all NAP recipients on meaningful jobs with entry-level wage at $7.50 an hour.

-Upgrade CHC’s back-up system to tertiary level.

-Cover all medical referral cost between the NMI, Hawaii, and the Philippines.

-Annual Christmas Drop of at least $1.5 million for happy campers Marianas-wide.

Don’t blink at the foregoing recommendations. It’s a good way to assimilating into the local community where you take it directly to the people. You do so without pit stops among political dinosaurs now nervously marching toward closing the page of their self-inflicted demise.

A commitment of this magnitude fosters trust from the permanent host. Give the two applicants their licenses but open it up to several more licenses. Maximize it!

On sleepy politicians

A leadership guru said, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.” How true, though, the guys are constantly caught sleeping on the switchboard failing to notice if it’s a “rise” or “descend.”

But I much prefer a billboard in Rio de Janeiro that declares, “When our politicians sleep, our nation moves forward.” Eh, could we help each other ensure that the guys and gals are high on pot so these pearly isles could inch forward? Must move somewhere so we exit rock bottom, lai. Dios mihu!

Realistically, however, casino could easily turn into a component of tourism if done right with transparency. But if greed has blinded normal vision of politicians then you know it’s all about greed and power so far removed from the general interest of the public. No worries, let’s join hands to ensure a statist or dictatorial government never takes root under a “government of laws.”

I’ve probed lapses in leadership to understand the beast. Greed is the primary motive the elected and appointed elite has seen as their tool to move the needle of growth forward. Hell, if the needle of growth has a unidirectional journey—pockets of politicians—so where does the “will” of “we the people” fit on the radar only privy of fast growing political dinosaurs?

You see, our people aren’t stupid! They know their issues from A-Z. Up front and center is the demand for transparency. In simple terms it’s all about honesty and integrity. Isn’t this the primary aspect you promised to uphold when you took your oath of office? Or did you change it on the way out for expensive luncheons, again, at our expense?

Done that too!

Have done this work as a gambling commissioner in 1979. Have dealt with real investment giants associated with the Howard Hughes Corp. out of HK. Back then there was hardly any competition from nearby that would wreck proposed casino investments some 35 years ago.

Why the redundancy of a lottery commission and a gaming commission? How about a single umbrella so we lessen the confusion? Hell, I’d be more than happy to serve as a commissioner. But the fees wouldn’t be cheap either. It’s very expensive! My fee is simple: Free of charge! Let’s see you match this commitment for “we the people”.

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Indeed, not a single politician feels comfortable in a working relationship with the undersigned for a simple reason: I tell it like it is, come hell or high water. It’s always nice driving home after work knowing the truth has set me free! The temptation to game the system is omnipotent. It remains your fiduciary duty, though, to protect the innocent, sticking resolutely to integrity.