Casino commission explores internet gaming potential
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SAIPAN – The Commonwealth Casino Commission last week discussed the potential of internet gaming in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Casino Commissioner Diego Songao earlier asked commission executive director Andrew Yeom to educate Songao on the operation of internet gaming and its potential to bring fresh revenue into the Commonwealth.
In response to Songao's request, Yeom conducted research on internet gaming. Yeom has 14 years of online executive gaming experience, having worked with major online gaming firms in South Korea.
On Thursday, Yeom said his presentation was strictly in response to Songao's request, adding that it is not his intention to lobby for a bill that proposes to legalize internet gaming in the Mariana Islands, referring to CNMI House Bill 22-47.
"I am not lobbying for the internet gaming. I am just responding to Commissioner Songao's request," Yeom reiterated.
To give the commissioners a glimpse of internet gaming operations in New Jersey, for example, Yeom reported that during the shutdown of casinos there due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online casinos brought in more than $81 million in gross revenue in June 2020, resulting in $14 million in tax collections.
Yeom said he told the casino commissioners that if ever the CNMI government allows internet gaming here, “it has to be done correctly.”
He said “if all works out well,” online gaming has economic potential for the commonwealth.
Based on his educated projections, Yeom said, online gaming that is done correctly can attract up to 2.1 million online gamblers annually, and can generate roughly $450 million in gross gaming revenue by year 2025 and beyond.
If internet gaming were to begin in 2022, he said, it may bring in $28.1 million in gross revenue; in 2023, $112.5 million; in 2024, $252.6 million; and in 2025, $449.4 million.
But Yeom reiterated that these are “hypothetical numbers” that are “for projection only.”
He said his forecast does not represent the actual numbers since there is no practical data for the CNMI.
