Only 2 licences to be issued

Merita Huch




The government says it will take another year or two before Samoa can see poker machines in selected hotels in Upolu and Savaii.
It is predicted that within that two years after the controversial law comes into being, only two licences would be issued.
One would be given to a hotel in Upolu (where the capital Apia is located) and the second one to go to a major international hotel development on the “big island” of Savaii.
Already there have been some interest shown from people and companies from overseas  interested in operating casinos.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi confirmed there has been connection with the people behind this major hotel project in Savaii about their interest in such an establishment, "but just talking on the internet doesn’t mean we’re processing a licence,” the Prime Minister told a media conference recently.
“The bill to officiate this change hasn’t even gone through Parliament for the third reading,” he says.
He admits however that if the bill, which will allow for the establishment of casinos in Samoa is passed into law, there will only be two licences issued—one for Upolu and the other for Savaii.
Since it was raised in the beginning of the year before it even reached Parliament, rejections began to appear on the local media. It soon became the hottest issue within the Samoan community overseas.
The church through the National Council in Samoa was the first to reject such a notion. It warned the government that if poker machines were introduced, poverty as never seen before would hit the country.

Concerns
The New Zealand Samoan community has also raised concerns over the effects of gambling habits.
Samoans are amongst so many in New Zealand and Australia who have had their homes sold or repossessed due to gambling addictions and many of the Samoan communities overseas joined the church in condemning such form of gambling in the islands.
The government reminded the public that there are many other forms of gambling which have been accepted by the Samoans.
Take Bingo and Housie for example, the Prime Minister said. Many churches hold bingos every week, sometime every day and it’s a means of fundraising for many different developments in the villages and especially in the churches.
He said the idea behind the introduction of casinos is firstly to help towards economic growth, and secondly, as an incentive for tourists who enjoy this type of entertainment to come to Samoa.
The Prime Minister added that like other similar games allowed in Samoa such as the National Lotto game and Lotto Samoa, Tattslotto and TAB, the earnings would go towards the development of sports in Samoa.
The government added that with this piece of legislation comes a new authority that would be selected to draw policies which will guide the operation of such machines in Samoa.
“We haven’t even selected an authority yet,” he told reporters.
“It would be a long time before we can actually see the establishment of an authority to be responsible for guidelines towards controlling this game,” he said.
While awaiting the bill for its third reading in Parliament, Tuilaepa said there were already five foreign-owned companies which have expressed their interests in establishing casinos in Samoa.
“And who knows, perhaps by next year or the year 2012, there would be hundreds more interested foreign investors wishing to build casinos here.
“That’s where the authority comes in, they will determine which companies  will be fit to run operations such as casions.”
In pushing the casino law, the government in Parliament had also said that “only tourists would be allowed on the casino premises”.
Identifications would be required to verify those allowed to play the poker machines.
It was in the mid-1990s that poker machines were banned from neighbouring American Samoa.
The casinos were not restricted to hotels or bars in American Samoa. Many shopping outlets would feature gambling machines.
Some Asians would rent parts of the family homes especially in the town area to run these businesses and in a move to ban poker machines in the territory, the Inland Security department in a major operation had to literally remove the machines from every outlet in American Samoa and dump them at the main island’s rubbish site.
Some machines were dumped with coins which were yet to be removed. Many machine owners ended up in prison for refusing to close down their operations or trying to re-establish the gambling games.
Until then, debates on the bill have now become more persistent than ever with the media now the form of communication used by members of the public and those opposing this bill to voice their concerns.
Although gambling is against the law in Samoa, it’s more the moral effects of such games that’s been pushed through, the reality however is that many still practice gambling in many other forms.
It is the main concern however of those pushing such moral grounds, that with these machines introduced into Samoa, whether it be for tourists or otherwise, it will open the doors to many other social problems that the government will at the end have to deal with.