Instead of taking action on House Bill 17-145, the Senate on Thursday referred it to its Fiscal Affairs Committee.
Introduced by Rep. Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, H.B. 17-145 will license poker machines on a calendar year basis and require a video monitoring system as well as secured storage for unlicensed machines.
The government charges a total of $12,000 for each poker machine license on Saipan. Half goes to the general fund while the other half is allotted to local scholarship.
From $9.5 million in fiscal year 2005, Yumul said the poker machine license fee collection has gone down to $4 million this fiscal year.
Yumul said the renewals of license fee in different months of the year makes collection “difficult and time consuming.”
Senate Vice President Jude U. Hofschneider, R-Tinian, said he remains “curious” how it will improve enforcement.
Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu, Ind.-Rota, doubts that the bill will help the government, adding that many poker arcades “are not really doing well.”
