THE information and advice they obtained from the ASEAN Gaming Summit in Manila last week will help them decide on the fate of the CNMI casino industry, House members told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday.
Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, chairman of the House Gaming Committee, said he takes full responsibility for the trip which they took “in an effort to become more familiar with the issues related to gaming in our region and specific solutions to our local situation.”
Yumul, Vice Speaker Joel Camacho, Rep. Marissa Flores, Rep. John Paul Sablan, Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna and Sen. Paul A. Manglona attended the three-day summit at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City, Metro Manila, the Philippines on March 21 to 23.
The members of the House Gaming Committee who did not join the trip were House Floor Leader Edwin Propst who had to be with his sisters to commemorate their parents’ first death anniversary; Rep. Roman Benavente who had to attend to “important family matters”; and Rep. Jonathan Blas who also had to attend to a “personal obligation.”
The House members who went to Manila said their office operation funds paid for their travel.
Yumul, who also chairs the House Ways and Means Committee said he spent $630 for airfare and over $30 for hotel accommodations. He said they did not stay in a luxury hotel, and they did not spend money for the summit itself because the $2,500 fee was waived by the organizers.
Jump-start gaming industry
Yumul said he decided to participate in the summit to find ways to “jump-start” the CNMI’s gaming industry.
As chairman of the Ways and Means committee, he and the committee members all understand the need to be cautious and not waste resources. But “we, as elected officials, cannot stand by and hope and pray and expect solutions to come to us,” he said.
As members of the House, “we are constantly criticized for inaction. We all know the situation that we are in, and it will not get any better unless we take action and do something about it. We need to come up with solutions to our problems.”
In rebuilding the CNMI economy, Yumul said, “we need to be proactive. As I said, we need to take action. We can’t sit and do nothing. We are looking for ways to jump-start our gaming industry, our tourism and economy. We are looking for revenue-generating ideas. We can’t afford to wait.”
He said last week’s summit wasn’t the first he has attended as chairman of the House Gaming Committee. He also attended a similar summit in Manila when Imperial Pacific International’s casino was still in operation.
Last week’s summit, Yumul said, was different because they were able to speak one-on-one with industry leaders who are familiar with the casino industry in the CNMI.
“We’ve asked many questions and got many answers [regarding] IPI, online gaming, [casino] junkets and current trends in Asia gaming. And depending on how our community feels about our gaming industry and the direction we are heading, we may need to amend the casino law [Public Law 18-56]. Of course, this will not happen overnight, and we believe the community should be involved,” he said.
Importance
For his part, Camacho said they learned so much from the summit and had the opportunity to meet with industry leaders and regulators of gaming in various countries.
He said they gained a better understanding of how gaming works, and what can actually work here.
They learned that nowadays, a casino works on a local scale. He said they found out that it’s a lot better to open smaller casinos which are more feasible in the CNMI.
They also learned that IPI has been “blacklisted” in the international gaming industry.
Variety was unable to get a comment from IPI.
Moving forward
Camacho said “we got a better insight on how to make things work for us moving forward.”
Saying that a lot of government programs in the CNMI relied on casino revenue, he said it is important for him as a member of the Legislature to attend the summit “to get a better view on how we shape policies moving forward and how we can better help our people and our programs like medical referral …and the Department of Public Safety and many more.”
He added, “All these things are tied into our economy and right now we have a hurting tourism industry. I can’t stress enough the importance of being aggressive and proactive in the effort to revive our economy.”
Correcting mistakes
Flores said during the summit they were asked by one of the journalists covering the event, “Do you think gaming was bad for the CNMI or it was just the bad company?”
Her response, Flores said, was: “Gaming has been around for many years providing revenue for social programs, including scholarships. I am a firm believer that it was a terrible company and horrible leadership.”
“I am not being personal,” she added, but she believes that the leadership of the Commonwealth Casino Commission “did not regulate well or adequately understand the consequences of implementing substandard regulations. The current situation is a testament to that, and there is no denying it.”
The better question she wants to address is, how can we progress from this point? Her answer is that every leader needs to be informed.
“We can’t be all experts, but we can do our due diligence to understand expert advice and ask authentic questions. We can hold conversations on relevant issues if we are on the same page. We cannot progress if we have some leaders who don’t know the do’s and don’ts of the gaming industry and some are stuck in the past and the way we usually do things here,” she said.
“We all know and understand what we are talking about. And we all need to understand what we are talking about to debate the issues intelligently. So, from this standpoint of whether the trip is worth it, absolutely. I was raised in the gaming industry. My dad owned gaming establishments and I understand the industry’s gaming and non-gaming revenue aspects better than most locals, having been raised in this environment. And I still learned much more on this trip,” she said.
As an elected official, Flores said she will never assume she has all the answers. “But we absorbed the knowledge and information gained [at the summit] and with that said, we have to continue to…work to correct past mistakes. We need to come up with solutions and we cannot do that by staying home and expecting answers to fall into our lap.”
Rep. John Paul Sablan said, as a member of the House Gaming Committee and chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation, he took it upon himself to attend the summit “to better understand [the gaming industry]. As we all know, we have an exclusive licensee here which is not operating at this time. I took it upon myself that I should learn more to find ways to…revive the gaming industry that we have here on Saipan.”
From left, Rep. Jonathan Blas Attao, House Vice Speaker Joel Camacho, Reps. Marissa Flores, Ralph N. Yumul, John Paul Sablan, Roman Benavente and House Floor Leader Edwin Propst during the House Gaming Committee’s media conference on Tuesday in the House chamber.
