GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Wednesday raised concerns about online gambling and the creation of a Tinian stable coin.
Aside from the constitutional issue that the Office of the Attorney General raised before he vetoed Senate Local Bill 24-1, the governor said, “Isn’t it the same thing…that the Philippines has, and even Palau? We need to be very careful how this thing is done.”
It’s a new type of gaming, he said, “but it’s still gambling and [has the] potential of something occurring that we have to be very concerned about.”
The Philippines has its ongoing problem with online gambling, Palacios said. “We see it, we read about it, we hear it. And what are we doing? We need to be very careful,” he said.
Palacios said it is “unfortunate” that the Legislature overrode his veto, adding that lawmakers should have looked at what the AG pointed out regarding the constitutionality of the measure, and the way it was drafted.
Palacios doesn’t believe that the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission can regulate a crypto-related business.
The override, despite the clarification from the AG, “was unfortunate,” Palacios reiterated.
Asked whether the Legislature got it wrong, he said, “I think so. I really do think so. Maybe they got it right, but I think they should have taken the time to call the AG [so he could] explain what it is that he was saying. But we’ll see what happens.”
Palacios said CNMI leaders “did the same thing” with the Saipan casino legislation “and the casino came, and then what?”
“Did they even think about all these [things] that [have] happened?” referring to Imperial Pacific International.
IPI operated a casino on Saipan for four years until the Covid-19 pandemic forced its closure in March 2020.
On April 19, 2024, IPI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing over $165.8 million in debt. Chapter 11 allows corporations to restructure while continuing operations.
“I don’t even know if the principals of these companies were vetted to begin with. Who are they?” the governor asked, referring to the CNMI-based Marianas Rai Corp., which Tinian chose as an exclusive provider of software and services for the issuance and redemption of the Tinian token called the Marianas U.S. Dollar or MUSD.
Marianas Rai Corp. co-founder and technology chief Vin Armani, who is also president of the Trade Council of the Marianas, earlier said that S.L.B. 24-1 “represented the efforts of dozens of experts and professionals, over many months, to provide a means for bringing significant tax revenue, in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year, to the municipal and central government, while having no casinos or gaming within the Commonwealth.”
He said that “the internet gaming regime developed by Tinian would have blocked players in the CNMI or any U.S. state or territory from participating in the gaming, while verifying and tracking all players and funds in the gaming ecosystem using the latest technology.”