Troubled Saipan IR operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has expressed its interest in running online gaming operations.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is set to vote on a bill that would allow licenses to be issued for online gaming after the House Committee on Gaming recently approved a measure to establish the CNMI as a new base for online gaming operators in the region. If approved, the industry would be regulated by the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) – the same body tasked with overseeing IPI’s Saipan integrated resort.
According to Marianas Variety, IPI’s Chairman Mark Brown told the House Gaming Committee during a public hearing last week that the company is “very much in favor of online gaming” and has previously discussed taking part in online gaming operations if allowed.
“We’re very pro-online gaming – we’re in favor of doing this,” he added.
Any such development by IPI or other interested operators will depend upon the interpretation of the US Wire Act, which has come under scrutiny in recent months after the US Department of Justice issued a new opinion stating the Act prohibits all forms of online gambling.
However, CCC Executive Director Edward Deleon Guerrero said that if the Wire Act doesn’t apply, “my understanding, based on my discussion with the chairman of IPI, the company is ready and willing to do this.
“It will require some investment on their part and considerable investment on our part looking at the regulations because there would probably be a new group of players involved.”
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