Poker arcade operator sues govt, Zoning

A company that runs poker machines on Saipan is suing the CNMI government and the Zoning board to stop them from enforcing a law that would require the company to move its machines out of villages.

Sin Ho Nam and his company, Winnerslife Inc., and Nam’s poker machines operator, Dan Bi Choi LLC, are suing the CNMI government and Commonwealth Zoning Board chair Diego C. Blanco for violation of due process.

The poker machines are located in Kagman and Finasisu.

As of press time last night, Saipan Tribune was still waiting for comments from Blanco.

Nam, a Korean national, holds a long-term business certificate in the CNMI since 2008. He changed the corporate name of his company from Sin Ho Development Inc. to Winnerslife Inc.

Dan Bin Choi LLC currently operates a number of poker machines owned by Nam and Winnerslife.

Nam, Winnerslife, and Dan Bin Choi LLC, though counsel Robert T. Torres, asked the Superior Court to declare that enforcing Public Law 18-05, the Saipan Adult Machine Business Zoning Law of 2013, interferes with and will deprive them of legally protected interests.

Winnerslife owns 19 poker machines in the CNMI.

For each one, Winnerslife pays to the Commonwealth an annual fee of $12,000.

Dan Bi Choi LLC currently operates a number of poker machines owned by Winnerslife. Dan Bi Choi LLC’s operational license expires on June 29, 2018.

Following its grant of an exclusive gambling license for casino gambling in Public Law 18-38, the Legislature declared that after April 2, 2015, no new or additional licenses for poker, pachinko, or similar amusement machines would be granted or allowed to operate outside of the approved casino establishment, hotel, or La Fiesta on Saipan.

Torres said licenses issued for poker, pachinko, and similar amusement machines that began operation prior to April 2, 2015, were allowed to continue operation.

Then, Torres said, in 2013 the Legislature enacted Saipan Local Law 18-05 to shut down poker parlors in residential villages.

He said Public Law 18-05 provided that “within four years of the effective date of…[Public Law 18-05], at the end of the last full renewal period of its license from the Department of Finance prior to the deadline,” all nonconforming adult gambling machine businesses had to be located in an Adult Business Park, a Tourist Resort, or “Mixed commercial, Garapan Core, Garapan East, or Beach Road Zoning Districts,” so long as the establishment was located 200 feet from any other adult gambling machine business, and any church, Laundromat, public and private school, park or playground.

The late governor Eloy S. Inos signed Saipan Local Law 18-5 into law on Oct. 25, 2013.

Torres said that Zoning has declared that Saipan poker owners and operators should shut down or required to pay a daily penalty of $1,000 unless the owners of these establishments abandon their leasehold interests and their investments, and relocate.