:: Find Saipan ::

So the topic or the subject in a lot of peoples mine now days are the Nov vote on the Casino initiative for the island of Saipan. Is Saipan for it or against is and more importantly is Saipan ready to handle the consequences of its decision.

From an excerpt from “The Business-economic Impact of Licensed Casino Gambling in West Virginia: Short-Term Gain but Long-Term Pain” written by John Warren Kindt a commerce and legal policy professors at the University of Illinois. He writes, “the legalization of gambling activities eventually causes: (1) increased taxes, (2) a loss of jobs from the overall region, (3) economic disruption of other businesses, (4) increased crime and (5) large social-welfare costs for society in general and government agencies in particular. For example, two studies of the riverboat casinos in Illinois concluded that for every one job created by the riverboats, most of the surrounding communities probably lost one or more jobs from pre-existing businesses” he also follows by saying that the economic short gain from casino doesn’t offset the strain it causes on the taxpayers, he states that, “In recent economic history, legalized gambling activities have been directly and indirectly subsidized by the taxpayers. The field research throughout the nation indicates that for every dollar the legalized gambling interests indicate is being contributed in taxes, it usually costs the taxpayers at least 3 dollars– and higher numbers have been calculated (Politzer, Morrow and Leavey 1981; Better Government Association 1992; Florida Budget Office 1994). These costs to taxpayers are reflected in: (1) infrastructure costs, (2) relatively high regulatory costs, (3) expenses to the criminal justice system, and (4) large social-welfare costs (Illinois Governor’s Office 1992). Accordingly, several state legislators (e.g., in South Dakota) have called for at least partially internalizing these external costs by taxing all legalized gambling activities at a straight 50 percent tax rate.”

You can read more on this from this site.

What does this all mean … to me this says, the people who are in control of the casino /cough /cough Former house speaker Pedro R. Guerrero, president of the CNMI indigenous Entrepreneurs Inc. will become filthy rich, companies and hotels that run the casino will become filthy rich. The general population in the whole and the local government will become more of a shit hole to pay for it all.

So was reading my newspaper I read that we had a Magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit the CNMI at around noon yesterday. This added to the fact that we had 5 earthquakes in 3 days all over last weekend. Did anyone notice the earthquakes at all, aren’t dogs suppose to bark or some shit like that to give us a warning.. I am going to have to have a talk with my dog.

LoL I give this group that is doing the silent protest about a month max till they stop showing up. Protests like this is so worthless, because it really doesn’t accomplish anything. But I give them all my support without giving them any real support.