A Saipan lawmaker is proposing that electronic table games be allowed in hotels as a means of generating more revenue for the cash-strapped government from the increasing numbers of Chinese tourists visiting the Pacific island group.
House Bill 18-51 adds “electronic gaming machines” to the definition of allowable machine gaming, currently restricted to video poker in Saipan and the other islands comprising the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. The ETGs would only be accessible to hotel guests, who are mostly tourists, so there will be little or no social impact on locals, said the bill’s sponsor, Tony P. Sablan, who chairs the chamber’s powerful Committee on Ways and Means.
The bill will “bolster the CNMI economy, create jobs and most importantly provide night-time activities for our guests,” Mr. Sablan said.
In promoting the measure, he pointed to government statistics showing China as the fastest-growing feeder market for tourism to the islands. The Marianas Visitors Authority is forecasting arrivals from China to exceed 91,000 this year.
Lawmakers are also considering legalizing casinos on Saipan, where voters have twice rejected them. They are legal on a couple of the neighboring islands in the group.
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