Allowing a casino on Saipan — even if agreed to this week — would not increase the CNMI’s revenue in FY 2011, nor would it increase the CNMI’s revenue in FY 2012, and probably not even in FY 2013.
Why? Because it takes time to find an investor (though one suspects Tenorio has one at hand), to find land on which to put the casino, to negotiate a lease, to design and build the casino itself — or redesign and remodel an existing building — to apply for and obtain all the required permits, to win approval of the qualifying tax certificate. Given the way the CNMI government works, it would take a couple of years, at the very least, for all of that to happen.
In short, a casino on Saipan is NOT the answer, is NOT going to help the administration with its present cash flow problems, and Tenorio should stop blathering that it will.
RUTH L. TIGHE
Tanapag, Saipan
