Guam Senate passes bill to ban gambling activities

The bill says all gambling would become illegal once the hospital retires all of its roughly us$ 18 million in vendor debt, the amount it owed as of March. The hospital consistently loses money because of uninsured patients and bad collections.

Senator Ben Pangelinan introduced the bill’s sunset amendment and tried to establish an us$ 18.8 million target for the hospital’s debt. But Senator Rory Respicio of the Rules Committee said Pangelinan’s figure would not be part of the final version sent to Governor Eddie Calvo. He has 10 business days to decide how to act on the bill.

The measure comes after several days of vigorous debate on gambling machines, along with back-and-forth earlier in the session on whether gambling should be legal in the unincorporated territory. A separate bill to tax gambling machines died last week after ongoing fighting between the attorney general’s office, the tax department, machine owners and lawmakers on all sides of the issue.

Speaker Judith Won Pat removed that bill from the session’s agenda, and supporters responded by moving key provisions of the bill to the measure that eventually passed with the amendments. The bill establishes a Guam Gaming Commission. The commission would have 180 days to develop regulations.

Guam’s tax department renewed licenses for more than 200 gambling machines earlier this month despite the ongoing fight. The territory’s attorney general, Leonardo Rapadas, has argued the machines are illegal because Guam law prohibits licensing gambling devices, trumping conflicting administrative rules and regulations.