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E-gaming provider wants to raise cap on number of machines
Strategic Gaming Solutions Inc. wants to raise the number of e-gaming machines allowed in the CNMI.
The company was one of the first to invest on e-gaming in the CNMI. Its request was one of the comments raised during a public hearing on e-gaming held at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center last Monday, June 15.
The e-gaming hearing was facilitated by Ray Basa, manager of e-gaming under the Department of Finance.
Basa said there is a limit on the number of e-gaming machines allowed in the CNMI, which is “about 100 machines.”
He said Strategic Gaming wants no limit on the number of machines.
Aside from an unlimited number of e-gaming machines, the firm also wants “to change” the license fees for the machines, Basa said.
Currently, the CNMI imposes a license fee of $2,500 for each e-gaming machine, but Basa did not disclose the exact amount that Strategic Gaming Solutions is asking for.
Public Law 18-20, or the E-Gaming Law, was signed in the CNMI in 2013. The law mandates that electronic gaming machines are allowed only in hotels on Saipan with at least 100 rooms. Hotels with fewer than 100 rooms can still offer e-gaming if they are attached to a golf course.
In June 2014, Saipan’s first electronic gaming facility, Club C located at the Kanoa Resort, held a soft opening.
According to Basa, the public hearing was “well-attended” with residents and lawmakers making up most of the audience.
“The main purpose of the hearing is to get comments from the public,” Basa said, adding that most of the attendees support e-gaming on the CNMI.
Basa said topics on regulation were not discussed.
The Department of Finance currently holds jurisdiction on the e-gaming machines, although a proposed legislation wants the Commonwealth Casino Commission to “handle” the regulation of e-gaming.
The commission, meanwhile, was not aware of the e-gaming public hearing, commissioner Justin S. Manglona, the commission’s secretary, said. He declined to comment further.
