Cruz: Gaming was open for bid
Citing concerns about illicit dealings at the Tiyan Casino in Guam, the country’s vice speaker has asked for an audit of the property.
“I really would like the public auditor to go in and to be able to confirm the stories I’ve heard about what was happening there,” said B.J. Cruz.
According to the Pacific News Center, Cruz has heard that a number of nonprofits are making money from the casino, which was built for the annual Liberation Festival, which is held in July, and was supposed to have closed at the festival’s end.
“But they bid it out piecemeal,” Cruz complained. “The baccarat table is owned and operated by one operator, the blackjack table is somebody else’s, the poker table is somebody else’s, the roulette operation is somebody else’s. Can the mayors’ council tell us how much money was made in any one weekend there? Who has kept track of everything because it doesn’t funnel up to one place where you can check.”
Cruz alleges that millions of dollars in gaming revenue are being generated at the casino without due oversight. In a letter to the public auditor, he wrote that the law continues to authorize games of chance as permitted by the governor of Guam “despite the repeated and outright rejection of casino gambling by the people of Guam at the voting booth.”
