Palacios, R-Saipan, said House Bill 17-129 or the Internet Gambling Act will provide for the regulation and control of Internet gambling and aims to increase tourism and provide needed revenue. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Rep. Francisco S. Dela Cruz, R-Saipan, said like poker machines, Internet gambling will create social problems.
Proponents of poker machines in the past said these would bring in more tourists to the islands. Most poker machine gamblers, however, are residents and guest workers.
Dela Cruz also expressed concern about the enforcement of online gambling. He asked the bill’s proponents who will enforce and monitor the operator.
Rep. Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan, asked whether public hearings had been conducted to educate people about the measure.
House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, said the bill may violate federal laws.
But House legal counsel John Cool said there is provision in the federal statute that does not apply to the CNMI.
Benavente was not convinced by the lawyer’s explanation.
Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, said he supports the bill, adding that now is the best time to be thinking of revenue generating bills “so whoever in the House wants to be governor some day won’t have financial problems when he takes office.”
Benavente, who is expected to run for governor in 2014, said instead of talking about what may happen in the future, it’s more important to think about the people’s interest now.
Palacios, R-Saipan, said he knows somebody who has been gambling online for almost two years now and winning prizes through his credit card.
Aside from Palacios and Tenorio, those who voted in favor of the bill were Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan; Reps. Ralph S. Demapan, Covenant-Saipan; Sylvestre I. Iguel, Covenant-Saipan; Raymond D. Palacios, Covenant-Saipan; Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan; Stanley T. Torres, Ind.-Saipan; George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan; and Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero, R-Saipan.
Those who voted “no” were Dela Cruz; Benavente; Reps. Fredrick P. Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan; Teresita A. Santos, Ind.-Rota; Antonio P. Sablan, R-Saipan; Ramon A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan; Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan; Trenton B. Conner, R-Tinian; and Edmund S. Villagomez, Covenant-Saipan.
Rep. Eliceo D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, was absent.
Over 1,000 jobs
Internet gambling, according to its supporters, will create over 1,000 jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue in the CNMI once it is effectively regulated.
Former Senate President Juan S. Demapan on Tuesday told the House that taxing online gambling is one of the achievable revenue-generating measures in the commonwealth.
He said he and the other people supporting H.B. 17-129 are looking at over 1,000 jobs that will be created once Internet gambling becomes another business activity on island.
In many Asian countries, online gambling is legal, Demapan said, and the CNMI can lure those gamblers to come here.
He said this will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue.
Demapan also pointed out that most people nowadays go online for almost all of their daily activities including amusement. It is now the best time to try something like Internet gambling for the benefit of the people, he said.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 aims to prevent U.S. residents from online gambling by restricting the role of banks in transmitting payments to and from gaming operators.
Demapan, however, said he is confident that many in the U.S. Congress are pushing to ease the restriction and regulate Internet gambling instead.
Last March, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wa., introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2010 or, H.R. 4976, which is projected to generate $42 billion in new federal government revenue and $30 billion in state revenue over 10 years.
In April, the bill was referred to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities.
Demapan, who now heads the newly organized Pacific Entertainment Technology, also cited a study by H2 Gambling Capital, a leading supplier of data and market intelligence in global gambling industry.
He said the study projects that regulating all forms of Internet gambling would generate close to tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue over five years for the U.S.
Demapan also noted that many U.S. residents are gambling online despite the restrictions.
